RSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  S)Vl|'„Rf^fi,9, 


3  1822  01730  4312 


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The  Crime 
of  the  Consfo 

By 

A.Conan  Doyle 


Compliments  of  the  Author 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA.  SAN  DIEGO 


822  01730  4312    ^ 


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Central  University  Library 

University  of  California,  San  Diego 
Please  Note:  This  Kern  is  subject  to  recall. 

Date  Due 

■•"2  81SC5 

MAR  2  2  m^ 

0139(7/93)                                                                 UCSDLb. 

THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 


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The 

Crime  of  the  Congo 


By 

A.  Conan  Doyle 

Author  of 

The  Great  Boer  War,  etc.,  etc. 


New  York 

Doubleday,  Page  &  Company 

Mcmix 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED,   INCLUDING  THAT  OF  TRANSLATION 
INTO  FOREIGN  LANGUAGES,  INCLUDING  THE  SCANDINAVIAN 

COPYRIGHT,   1909,   BY  DOUBLED  AY,   PAGE  &  COMPANY 
PUBLISHED,   NOVEMBER,    1 909 
COPYRIGHT,   1909,  BY  A.  CONAN  DOYLE 


PREFACE 

There  are  many  of  us  in  England  who  consider  the  crime  which 
has  been  wrought  in  the  Congo  lands  by  King  Leopold  of  Belgium 
and  his  followers  to  be  the  greatest  which  has  ever  been  known 
in  human  annals.  Personally  I  am  strongly  of  that  opinion. 
There  have  been  great  expropriations  like  that  of  the  Normans 
in  England  or  of  the  English  in  Ireland.  There  have  been 
massacres  of  populations  like  that  of  the  South  Americans  by  the 
Spaniards  or  of  subject  nations  by  the  Turks.  But  never  before 
has  there  been  such  a  mixture  of  wholesale  expropriation  and 
wholesale  massacre  all  done  under  an  odious  guise  of  philanthropy 
and  with  the  lowest  commercial  motives  as  a  reason.  It  is  this 
sordid  cause  and  the  unctious  hypocrisy  which  makes  this  crime 
unparalleled  in  its  horror. 

The  witnesses  of  the  crime  are  of  all  nations,  and  there  is  no  possi- 
bility of  error  concerning  facts.  There  are  British  consuls  like 
Casement,  Thesiger,  Mitchell  and  Armstrong,  all  writing  in  their 
official  capacity  with  every  detail  of  fact  and  date.  There  are  French- 
men like  Pierre  Mille  and  Fdlicien  Challaye,  both  of  whom  have 
written  books  upon  the  subject.  There  are  missionaries  of  many 
races  —  Harris,  Weeks  and  Stannard  (British) ;  Morrison,  Clarke 
and  Shepherd  (American);  Sjoblom  (Swedish)  and  Father  Ver- 
meersch,  the  Jesuit.  There  is  the  eloquent  action  of  the  Italian 
Government,  who  refused  to  allow  Italian  officers  to  be  employed 
any  longer  in  such  hangman's  work,  and  there  is  the  report  of  the 
Belgian  commission,  the  evidence  before  which  was  suppressed 
because  it  was  too  dreadful  for  publication;  finally,  there  is  the  incor- 
ruptible evidence  of  the  kodak.  Any  American  citizen  who  will 
glance  at  Mark  Twain's  ''King  Leopold's  Soliloquy"  will  see  some 
samples  of  that.  A  perusal  of  all  of  these  sources  of  information 
will  show  that  there  is  not  a  grotesque,  obscene  or  ferocious  torture 
which  human  ingenuity  could  invent  which  has  not  been  used  against 
these  harmless  and  helpless  people. 

This  would,  to  my  mind,  warrant  our  intervention  in  any  case. 


IV  PREFACE 

Turkey  has  several  times  been  interfered  with  simply  on  the  general 
ground  of  humanity.  There  is  in  this  instance  a  very  special 
reason  why  America  and  England  should  not  stand  by  and  see 
these  people  done  to  death.  They  are,  in  a  sense,  their  wards. 
America  was  the  first  to  give  official  recognition  to  King  Leopold's 
enterprise  in  1884,  and  so  has  the  responsibility  of  having  actually 
put  him  into  that  position  which  he  has  so  dreadfully  abused. 
She  has  been  the  indirect  and  innocent  cause  of  the  whole  tragedy. 
Surely  some  reparation  is  due.  On  the  other  hand  England 
has,  with  the  other  European  Powers,  signed  the  treaty  of  1885, 
by  which  each  and  aU  of  them  make  it  responsible  for  the 
condition  of  the  native  races.  The  other  Powers  have  so  far 
shown  no  desire  to  live  up  to  this  pledge.  But  the  conscience 
of  England  is  uneasy  and  she  is  slowly  rousing  herself  to  act. 
Will  America  be  behind? 

At  this  moment  two  American  citizens.  Shepherd  and  that  noble 
Virginian,  Morrison,  are  about  to  be  tried  at  Boma  for  telling  the 
truth  about  the  scoundrels.  Morrison  in  the  dock  makes  a  finer 
Statue  of  Liberty  than  Bartholdi's  in  New  York  harbour. 

Attempts  will  be  made  in  America  (for  the  Congo  has  its  paid 
apologists  everywhere)  to  pretend  that  England  wants  to  oust  Belgium 
from  her  colony  and  take  it  herself.  Such  accusations  are  folly. 
To  run  a  tropical  colony  honestly  without  enslaving  the  natives  is 
an  expensive  process.  For  example  Nigeria,  the  nearest  English 
colony,  has  to  be  subsidized  to  the  extent  of  $2,000,000  a  year.  Who- 
ever takes  over  the  Congo  will,  considering  its  present  demoralized 
condition,  have  a  certain  expense  of  $10,000,000  a  year  for  twenty 
years.  Belgium  has  not  run  the  colony.  It  has  simply  sacked  it, 
forcing  the  inhabitants  without  pay  to  ship  everything  of  value  to 
Antwerp.  No  decent  European  Power  could  do  this.  For  many 
years  to  come  the  Congo  will  be  a  heavy  expense  and  it  will  truly 
be  a  philanthropic  call  upon  the  next  owner.  I  trust  it  will  not  fall 
to  England. 

Attempts  have  been  made  too  (for  there  is  considerable  ingenuity 
and  unlimited  money  on  the  other  side)  to  pretend  that  it  is  a  question 
of  Protestant  missions  against  Catholic.  Any  one  who  thinks  this 
should  read  the  book,  "  La  Question  Kongolaise,"  of  the  eloquent  and 
holy  Jesuit,  Father  Vermeersch.  He  lived  in  the  country  and,  as  he 
says,  it  was  the  sight  of  the  "immeasurable  misery,"  which  drove  him 
to  write. 


PREFACE  V 

We  English  who  are  earnest  over  this  matter  look  eagerly 
to  the  westward  to  see  some  sign  of  moral  support  of  material 
leading.  It  would  be  a  grand  sight  to  see  the  banner  of  humanity 
and  civilization  carried  forward  in  such  a  cause  by  the  two  great 
English-speaking  nations. 

Arthur  Conan  Doyle. 


INTRODUCTION 

I  am  convinced  that  the  reason  why  public  opinion  has  not  been 
more  sensitive  upon  the  question  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  is  that 
the  terrible  story  has  not  been  brought  thoroughly  home  to  the  people. 
Mr.  E.  D.  Morel  has  done  the  work  of  ten  men,  and  the  Congo 
Reform  Association  has  struggled  hard  with  very  scanty  means; 
but  their  time  and  energies  have,  for  the  most  part,  been  absorbed  in 
dealing  with  each  fresh  phase  of  the  situation  as  it  arose.  There 
is  room,  therefore,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  for  a  general  account  which 
would  cover  the  whole  field  and  bring  the  matter  up  to  date.  This 
account  must  necessarily  be  a  superficial  one,  if  it  is  to  be  produced 
at  such  a  size  and  such  a  price,  as  will  ensure  its  getting  at  that  general 
public  for  which  it  has  been  prepared.  Yet  it  contains  the  essential 
facts,  and  will  enable  the  reader  to  form  his  own  opinion  upon  the 
situation. 

Should  he,  after  reading  it,  desire  to  help  in  the  work  of  forcing 
this  question  to  the  front,  he  can  do  so  in  several  ways.  He  can 
join  the  Congo  Reform  Association  (Granville  House,  Arundel 
Street,  W.  C).  He  can  write  to  his  local  member  and  aid  in  getting 
up  local  meetings  to  ventilate  the  question.  Finally,  he  can  pass 
this  book  on  and  purchase  other  copies,  for  any  profits  will  be  used 
in  setting  the  facts  before  the  French  and  German  public. 

It  may  be  objected  that  this  is  ancient  history,  and  that  the  greater 
part  of  it  refers  to  a  period  before  the  Congo  State  was  annexed  to 
Belgium  on  August  loth,  1908.  But  responsibility  cannot  be  so 
easily  shaken  off.  The  Congo  State  was  founded  by  the  Belgian  King, 
and  exploited  by  Belgian  capital,  Belgian  soldiers  and  Belgian  con- 
cessionnaires.  It  was  defended  and  upheld  by  successive  Belgian 
Governments,  who  did  all  they  could  to  discourage  the  Reformers. 
In  spite  of  legal  quibbles,  it  is  an  insult  to  common  sense  to  suppose 
that  the  responsibility  for  the  Congo  has  not  always  rested  with 
Belgium.  The  Belgian  machinery  was  always  ready  to  help  and 
defend  the  State,  but  never  to  hold  it  in  control  and  restrain  it 
from  crime. 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

One  chance  Belgium  had.  If  immediately  upon  taking  over  the 
State  they  had  formed  a  Judicial  Commission  for  the  rigid  inspection 
of  the  whole  matter,  with  power  to  punish  for  all  past  offences, 
and  to  examine  all  the  scandals  of  recent  years,  then  they  would 
have  done  something  to  clear  the  past.  If  on  the  top  of  that  they 
had  freed  the  land,  given  up  the  system  of  forced  labour  entirely, 
and  cancelled  the  charters  of  all  the  concessionnaire  companies, 
for  the  obvious  reason  that  they  have  notoriously  abused  their  powers, 
then  Belgium  could  go  forward  in  its  colonizing  enterprise  on  the 
same  terms  as  other  States,  with  her  sins  expiated  so  far  as  expiation 
is  now  possible. 

She  did  none  of  these  things.  For  a  year  now  she  has  herself 
persevered  in  the  evil  ways  of  her  predecessor.  Her  colony  is  a 
scandal  before  the  whole  world.  The  era  of  murders  and  mutilations 
has,  as  we  hope,  passed  by,  but  the  country  is  sunk  into  a  state  of 
cowed  and  hopeless  slavery.  It  is  not  a  new  story,  but  merely  another 
stage  of  the  same  story.  When  Belgium  took  over  the  Congo  State, 
she  took  over  its  history  and  its  responsibilities  also.  What  a  load 
that  was  is  indicated  in  these  pages. 

The  record  of  the  dates  is  the  measure  of  our  patience.  Can 
any  one  say  that  we  are  precipitate  if  we  now  brush  aside  vain  words 
and  say  definitely  that  the  matter  has  to  be  set  right  by  a  certain  near 
date,  or  that  we  will  appeal  to  each  and  all  of  the  Powers,  with  the 
evidence  before  them,  to  assist  us  in  setting  it  right?  If  the  Powers 
refuse  to  do  so,  then  it  is  our  duty  to  honour  the  guarantees  which  we 
made  as  to  the  safety  of  these  poor  people,  and  to  turn  to  the  task 
of  setting  it  right  ourselves.  If  the  Powers  join  in,  or  give  us  a  man- 
date, all  the  better.  But  we  have  a  mandate  from  something  higher 
than  the  Powers  which  obliges  us  to  act. 

Sir  Edward  Grey  has  told  us  in  his  speech  of  July  22nd,  1909, 
that  a  danger  to  European  peace  lies  in  the  matter.  Let  us  look 
this  danger  squarely  in  the  face.  Whence  does  it  come  ?  Is  it  from 
Germany,  with  her  traditions  of  kindly  home  life  —  is  this  the 
power  which  would  raise  a  hand  to  help  the  butchers  of  the  Mongalla 
and  of  the  Domaine  de  la  Couronne?  Is  it  likely  that  those  who 
so  justly  admire  the  splendid  private  and  public  example  of  William 
II.  would  draw  the  sword  for  Leopold  ?  Both  in  the  name  of  trade 
rights  and  in  that  of  humanity  Germany  has  a  long  score  to  settle 
on  the  Congo.  Or  is  it  the  United  States  which  would  stand  in  the 
way,  when  her  citizens  have  vied  with  our  own  in  withstanding  and 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

exposing  these  iniquities?  Or,  lastly,  is  France  the  danger ?  There 
are  those  who  think  that  because  France  has  capital  invested  in  these 
enterprises,  because  the  French  Congo  has  itself  degenerated  under 
the  influence  and  example  of  its  neighbour,  and  because  France  holds 
a  right  of  pre-emption,  that  therefore  our  trouble  lies  across  the 
Channel.  For  my  own  part,  I  cannot  believe  it.  I  know  too  well  the 
generous,  chivalrous  instincts  of  the  French  people.  I  know,  also, 
that  their  colonial  record  during  centuries  has  been  hardly  inferior 
to  our  own.  Such  traditions  are  not  lightly  set  aside,  and  all  will 
soon  be  right  again  when  a  strong  Colonial  Minister  turns  his  atten- 
tion to  the  concessionnaires  in  the  French  Congo.  They  will  remem- 
ber de  Brazza's  dying  words:  "Our  Congo  must  not  be  turned  into 
a  Mongalla."  It  is  an  impossibility  that  France  could  ally  herself 
with  King  Leopold,  and  certainly  if  such  were,  indeed,  the  case,  the 
entente  cordiale  would  be  strained  to  breaking.  Surely,  then,  if  these 
three  Powers,  the  ones  most  directly  involved,  have  such  obvious 
reasons  for  helping,  rather  than  hindering,  we  may  go  forward 
without  fear.  But  if  it  were  not  so,  if  all  Europe  frowned  upon 
our  enterprise,  we  would  not  be  worthy  to  be  the  sons  of  our  fathers 
if  we  did  not  go  forward  on  the  plain  path  of  national  duty. 

Arthur  Conan  Doyle. 
Windlesham,  Crowborough, 
September,  1909. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Preface             • 

iii 

Introduction 

vii 

How  the  Congo  Free  State  Came  to  be  Founded 

3 

The  Development  of  the  Congo  State 

9 

The  Working  of  the  System 

22 

First  Fruits  of  the  System 

27 

Further  Fruits  of  the  System 

39 

Voices  from  the  Darkness 

.         46 

Consul  Roger  Casement's  Report        .... 

57 

King  Leopold's  Commission  and  Its  Report 

68 

The  Congo  After  the  Commission       .... 

.         87 

Some  Catholic  Testimony  as  to  the  Congo  . 

97 

The  Evidence  Up  to  Date 

.      102 

The  Political  Situation 

.       114 

Some  Congolese  Apologies 

.       118 

Solutions 

.      123 

Appendix 

127 

THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 


The  Crime  of  the  Congo 


HOW  THE  CON€0  FREE  STATE  CAME  TO  BE  FOUNDED 

IN  THE  earlier  years  of  his  reign  King  Leopold  of  Belgium 
began  to  display  that  interest  in  Central  Africa  which  for  a 
long  time  was  ascribed  to  nobility  and  philanthropy,  until 
the  contrast  between  such  motives,  and  the  actual  unscrupulous 
commercialism,  became  too  glaring  to  be  sustained.  As  far  back  as 
the  year  1876  he  called  a  conference  of  humanitarians  and  travellers, 
who  met  at  Brussels  for  the  purpose  of  debating  various  plans  by 
which  the  Dark  Continent  might  be  opened  up.  From  this  con- 
ference sprang  the  so-called  International  African  Association, 
which,  in  spite  of  its  name,  was  almost  entirely  a  Belgian  body, 
with  the  Belgian  King  as  President.  Its  professed  object  was  the 
exploration  of  the  country  and  the  founding  of  stations  which  should 
be  rest-houses  for  travellers  and  centres  of  civilization. 

On  the  return  of  Stanley  from  his  great  journey  in  1878,  he  was 
met  at  Marseilles  by  a  representative  from  the  King  of  Belgium,  who 
enrolled  the  famous  traveller  as  an  agent  for  his  Association.  The 
immediate  task  given  to  Stanley  was  to  open  up  the  Congo  for  trade, 
and  to  make  such  terms  with  the  natives  as  would  enable  stations 
to  be  built  and  dep6ts  established.  In  1879  Stanley  was  at  work 
with  characteristic  energy.  His  own  intentions  were  admirable. 
"We  shall  require  but  mere  contact,"  he  wrote,  *'  to  satisfy  the  natives 
that  our  intentions  are  pure  and  honourable,  seeking  their  own  good, 
materially  and  socially,  more  than  our  own  interests.  We  go  to 
spread  what  blessings  arise  from  amiable  and  just  intercourse  with 
people  who  have  been  strangers  to  them."  Stanley  was  a  hard 
man,  but  he  was  no  hypocrite.  What  he  said  he  undoubtedly  meant. 
It  is  worth  remarking,  in  view  of  the  accounts  of  the  laziness  or 
stupidity  of  the  natives  given  by  King  Leopold's  apologists  in  order 

3 


4  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

to  justify  their  conduct  toward  them,  that  Stanley  had  the  very 
highest  opinion  of  their  industry  and  commercial  ability.  The 
following  extracts  from  his  writings  set  this  matter  beyond  all  doubt: 

"Bolobo  is  a  great  centre  for  the  ivory  and  camwood  powder 
trade,  principally  because  its  people  are  so  enterprising." 

Of  Irebu  —  "a  Venice  of  the  Congo"  —  he  says: 

"These  people  were  really  acquainted  with  many  lands  and  tribes 
on  the  Upper  Congo.  From  Stanley  Pool  to  Upoto,  a  distance  of 
6,000  miles,  they  knew  every  landing-place  on  the  river  banks.  All 
the  ups  and  downs  of  savage  life,  all  the  profits  and  losses  derived 
from  barter,  all  the  diplomatic  arts  used  by  tactful  savages,  were 
as  well  known  to  them  as  the  Roman  alphabet  to  us.  .  .  .  No 
wonder  that  all  this  commercial  knowledge  had  left  its  traces  on  their 
faces;  indeed,  it  is  the  same  as  in  your  own  cities  in  Europe.  Know 
you  not  the  military  man  among  you,  the  lawyer  and  the  merchant, 
the  banker,  the  artist,  or  the  poet?    It  is  the  same  in  Africa,  more 

ESPECIALLY  ON  THE  CONGO,  W^HERE  THE  PEOPLE  ARE  SO  DEVOTED 
TO  TRADE." 

"During  the  few  days  of  our  mutual  intercourse  they  gave  us 
a  high  idea  of  their  qualities  —  industry,  after  their  own  style,  not 
being  the  least  conspicuous." 

"As  in  the  old  time,  Umangi,  from  the  right  bank,  and  Mpa,  from 
the  left  bank,  despatched  their  representatives  with  ivory  tusks, 
large  and  small,  goats  and  sheep,  and  vegetable  food,  clamorously 
demanding  that  we  should  buy  from  them.  Such  urgent  entreaties, 
accompanied  with  blandishments  to  purchase  their  stock,  were 
difficult  to  resist." 

"I  speak  of  eager  native  ti-aders  following  us  for  miles  for  the 
smallest  piece  of  cloth.  I  mention  that  after  travelling  many  miles 
to  obtain  cloth  for  ivory  and  redwood  powder,  the  despairing  natives 
asked:  'Well,  what  is  it  you  do  want?  Tell  us,  and  we  will  get  it 
for  you.'  " 

Speaking  of  English  scepticism  as  to  King  Leopold's  intentions, 
he  says: 

"Though  they  understand  the  satisfaction  of  a  sentiment  when 
applied  to  England,  they  are  slow  to  understand  that  it  may  be  a 


HOW  CONGO  FREE  STATE  CAME  TO  BE  FOUNDED   5 

sentiment  that  induced  King  Leopold  II.  to  father  this  International 
Association.  He  is  a  dreamer,  like  his  confreres  in  the  work,  because 
the  sentiment  is  applied  to  the  neglected  millions  of  the  Dark 
Continent.  They  cannot  appreciate  rightly,  because  there  are  no 
dividends  attaching  to  it,  this  ardent,  vivifying  and  expansive  senti- 
ment, which  seeks  to  extend  civilizing  influences  among  the  dark 
races,  and  to  brighten  up  with  the  glow  of  civilization  the  dark 
places  of  sad-browed  Africa." 

One  cannot  let  these  extracts  pass  without  noting  that  Bolobo, 
the  first  place  named  by  Stanley,  has  sunk  in  population  from  40,000 
to  7,000;  that  Irebu,  called  by  Stanley  the  populous  Venice  of  the 
Congo,  had  in  1903  a  population  of  fifty;  that  the  natives  who  used 
to  follow  Stanley,  beseeching  him  to  trade,  now,  according  to  Consul 
Casement,  fly  into  the  bush  at  the  approach  of  a  steamer,  and  that 
the  unselfish  sentiment  of  King  Leopold  II.  has  developed  into 
dividends  of  300  per  cent,  per  annum.  Such  is  the  difference  between 
Stanley's  anticipation  and  the  actual  fulfilment. 

Untroubled,  however,  with  any  vision  as  to  the  destructive  effects 
of  his  own  work,  Stanley  laboured  hard  among  the  native  chiefs, 
and  returned  to  his  employer  with  no  less  than  450  alleged  treaties 
which  transferred  land  to  the  Association.  We  have  no  record  of 
the  exact  payment  made  in  order  to  obtain  these  treaties,  but  we 
have  the  terms  of  a  similar  transaction  carried  out  by  a  Belgian 
officer  in  1883  at  Palabala.  In  this  case  the  payment  made  to  the 
Chief  consisted  of  "one  coat  of  red  cloth  with  gold  facings,  one  red 
cap,  one  white  tunic,  one  piece  of  white  baft,  one  piece  of  red  points, 
one  box  of  liqueurs,  four  demijohns  of  rum,  two  boxes  of  gin,  128 
bottles  of  gin,  twenty  red  handkerchiefs,  forty  singlets  and  forty 
old  cotton  caps."  It  is  clear  that  in  making  such  treaties  the  Chief 
thought  that  he  was  giving  permission  for  the  establishment  of  a 
station.  The  idea  that  he  was  actually  bartering  away  the  land  was 
never  even  in  his  mind,  for  it  was  held  by  a  communal  tenure  for 
the  whole  tribe,  and  it  was  not  his  to  barter.  And  yet  it  is  on  the 
strength  of  such  treaties  as  these  that  twenty  millions  of  people  have 
been  expropriated,  and  the  whole  wealth  and  land  of  the  country 
proclaimed  to  belong,  not  to  the  inhabitants,  but  to  the  State  —  that 
is,  to  King  Leopold. 

With  this  sheaf  of  treaties  in  his  portfolio  the  King  of  the  Belgians 
now  approached  the  Powers  with  high  sentiments  of  humanitarianism, 


6  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

and  with  a  definite  request  that  the  State  which  he  was  forming  should 
receive  some  recognized  status  among  the  nations.  Was  he  at  that 
time  consciously  hypocritical?  Did  he  already  foresee  how  widely 
his  future  actions  would  differ  from  his  present  professions?  It  is 
a  problem  which  will  interest  the  historian  of  the  future,  who  may 
have  more  materials  than  we  upon  which  to  form  a  judgment.  On 
the  one  hand,  there  was  a  furtive  secrecy  about  the  evolution  of 
his  plans  and  the  despatch  of  his  expeditions  which  should  have  no 
place  in  a  philanthropic  enterprise.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are 
limits  to  human  powers  of  deception,  and  it  is  almost  inconceivable 
that  a  man  who  was  acting  a  part  could  so  completely  deceive  the 
whole  civilized  world.  It  is  more  probable,  as  it  seems  to  me,  that 
his  ambitious  mind  discerned  that  it  was  possible  for  him  to  acquire 
a  field  of  action  which  his  small  kingdom  could  not  give,  in  mixing 
himself  with  the  affairs  of  Africa.  He  chose  the  obvious  path,  that 
of  a  civilizing  and  elevating  mission,  taking  the  line  of  least  resistance 
without  any  definite  idea  whither  it  might  lead  him.  Once  faced 
with  the  facts,  his  astute  brain  perceived  the  great  material  possi- 
bilities of  the  country;  his  early  dreams  faded  away  to  be  replaced 
by  unscrupulous  cupidity,  and  step  by  step  he  was  led  downward 
until  he,  the  man  of  holy  aspirations  in  1885,  stands  now  in  1909 
with  such  a  cloud  of  terrible  direct  personal  responsibility  resting 
upon  him  as  no  man  in  modern  European  history  has  had  to  bear. 

It  is,  indeed,  ludicrous,  with  our  knowledge  of  the  outcome,  to 
read  the  declarations  of  the  King  and  of  his  representatives  at  that 
time.  They  were  actually  forming  the  strictest  of  commercial  monop- 
olies —  an  organization  which  was  destined  to  crush  out  all  general 
private  trade  in  a  country  as  large  as  the  whole  of  Europe  with  Russia 
omitted.  That  was  the  admitted  outcome  of  their  enterprise.  Now 
listen  to  M.  Beernaert,  the  Belgian  Premier,  speaking  in  the  year  1885 : 

"The  State,  of  which  our  King  will  be  the  Sovereign,  will  be  a 
sort  of  international  Colony.  There  will  be  no  monopolies,  no 
privileges.  .  .  .  Quite  the  contrary:  absolute  freedom  of  com- 
merce, freedom  of  property,  freedom  of  navigation." 

Here,  too,  are  the  words  of  Baron  Lambermont,  the  Belgian 
Plenipotentiary  at  the  Berlin  Conference: 

"The  temptation  to  impose  abusive  taxes  will  find  its  corrective, 
if  need  be,  in  the  freedom  of  commerce.     .    .    .    No  doubt  exists 


HOW  CONGO  FREE  STATE  CAME  TO  BE  FOUNDED   7 

as  to  the  strict  and  literal  meaning  of  the  term  '  in  commercial  mat- 
ters.' It  means.  .  .  .  the  unlimited  right  for  every  one  to 
buy  and  to  sell." 

The  question  of  humanity  is  so  pressing  that  it  obscures  that  of 
the  broken  pledges  about  trade,  but  on  the  latter  alone  there  is  ample 
reason  to  say  that  every  condition  upon  which  this  State  was  founded 
has  been  openly  and  notoriously  violated,  and  that,  therefore,  its 
title-deeds  are  vitiated  from  the  beginning. 

At  the  time  the  professions  of  the  King  made  the  whole  world 
his  enthusiastic  allies.  The  United  States  was  the  first  to  hasten 
to  give  formal  recognition  to  the  new  State.  May  it  be  the  first,  also, 
to  realize  the  truth  and  to  take  public  steps  to  retract  what  it  has 
done.  The  churches  and  the  Chambers  of  Commerce  of  Great 
Britain  were  all  for  Leopold,  the  one  attracted  by  the  prospect  of 
pushing  their  missions  into  the  heart  of  Africa,  the  others  delighted 
at  the  offer  of  an  open  market  for  their  produce.  At  the  Congress 
of  Berlin,  which  was  called  to  regulate  the  situation,  the  nations  vied 
with  each  other  in  furthering  the  plans  of  the  King  of  the  Belgians 
and  in  extolling  his  high  aims.  The  Congo  Free  State  was  created 
amid  general  rejoicings.  The  veteran  Bismarck,  as  credulous 
as  the  others,  pronounced  its  baptismal  blessing.  "The  New 
Congo  State  is  called  upon,"  said  he,  "to  become  one  of  the  chief 
promoters  of  the  work"  (of  civilization)  "which  we  have  in  view, 
and  I  pray  for  its  prosperous  development  and  for  the  fulfilment  of 
the  noble  aspirations  of  its  illustrious  founder."  Such  was  the  birth 
of  the  Congo  Free  State.  Had  the  nations  gathered  round  been 
able  to  perceive  its  future,  the  betrayal  of  religion  and  civilization 
of  which  it  would  be  guilty,  the  immense  series  of  crimes  which 
it  would  perpetrate  throughout  Central  Africa,  the  lowering  of 
the  prestige  of  all  the  white  races,  they  would  surely  have  strangled 
the  monster  in  its  cradle. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  record  in  this  statement  the  whole  of  the 
provisions  of  the  Berlin  Congress.  Two  only  will  suffice,  as  they 
are  at  the  same  time  the  most  important  and  the  most  flagrantly 
abused.  The  first  of  these  (which  forms  the  fifth  article  of  the 
agreement)  proclaims  that  "No  Power  which  exercises  sovereign 
rights  in  the  said  regions  shall  be  allowed  to  grant  therein  either 
monopoly  or  privilege  of  any  kind  in  commercial  matters."  No 
words  could  be  clearer  than  that,  but  the  Belgian  representatives, 


8  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

conscious  that  such  a  clause  must  disarm  all  opposition,  went  out 
of  their  way  to  accentuate  it.  "No  privileged  situation  can  be 
created  in  this  respect,"  they  said.  "  The  way  remains  open  without 
any  restriction  to  free  competition  in  the  sphere  of  commerce."  It 
would  be  interesting  now  to  send  a  British  or  German  trading  expedi- 
tion up  the  Congo  in  search  of  that  free  competition  which  has  been 
so  explicitly  promised,  and  to  see  how  it  would  fare  between  the 
monopolist  Government  and  the  monopolist  companies  who  have 
divided  the  land  between  them.  We  have  travelled  some  distance 
since  Prince  Bismarck  at  the  last  sitting  of  the  Conference  declared 
that  the  result  was  "to  secure  to  the  commerce  of  all  nations  free 
access  to  the  centre  of  the  African  Continent." 

More  important,  however,  is  Article  VI.,  both  on  account  of  the 
issues  at  stake,  and  because  the  signatories  of  the  treaty  bound 
themselves  solemnly,  "in  the  name  of  Almighty  God,"  to  watch 
over  its  enforcement.  It  ran:  "All  the  Powers  exercising  sovereign 
rights  or  influence  in  these  territories  pledge  themselves  to  watch 
over  the  preservation  of  the  native  populations  and  the  improvement 
of  their  moral  and  material  conditions  of  existence,  and  to  work 
together  for  the  suppression  of  slavery  and  of  the  slave  trade."  That 
was  the  pledge  of  the  united  nations  of  Europe.  It  is  a  disgrace  to 
each  of  them,  including  ourselves,  the  way  in  which  they  have  fulfilled 
that  oath.  Before  their  eyes,  as  I  shall  show  in  the  sequel,  they 
have  had  enacted  one  long,  horrible  tragedy,  vouched  for  by  priests 
and  missionaries,  traders,  travellers  and  consuls,  all  corroborated, 
but  in  no  way  reformed,  by  a  Belgium  commission  of  inquiry.  They 
have  seen  these  unhappy  people,  who  were  their  wards,  robbed  of 
all  they  possessed,  debauched,  degraded,  mutilated,  tortured,  mur- 
dered, all  on  such  a  scale  as  has  never,  to  my  knowledge,  occurred 
before  in  the  whole  course  of  history,  and  now,  after  all  these  years, 
with  all  the  facts  notorious,  we  are  still  at  the  stage  of  polite  diplo- 
matic expostulations.  It  is  no  answer  to  say  that  France  and  Ger- 
many have  shown  even  less  regard  for  the  pledge  they  took  at  Berlin. 
An  individual  does  not  condone  the  fact  that  he  has  broken  his  word 
by  pointing  out  that  his  neighbour  has  done  the  same. 


II 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE 

HAVING  received  his  mandate  from  the  civilized  world 
King  Leopold  proceeded  to  organize  the  Government  of 
the  new  State,  which  was  in  theory  to  be  independent  of 
Belgium,  although  ruled  by  the  same  individual.  In  Europe,  King 
Leopold  was  a  constitutional  monarch;  in  Africa,  an  absolute 
autocrat.  There  were  chosen  three  ministers  for  the  new  State  — 
for  foreign  affairs,  for  finances  and  for  internal  affairs;  but  it  cannot 
be  too  clearly  understood  that  they  and  their  successors,  up  to  1908, 
were  nominated  by  the  King,  paid  by  the  King,  answerable  only  to  the 
King,  and,  in  all  ways,  simply  so  many  upper  clerks  in  his  employ. 
The  workings  of  one  policy  and  of  one  brain,  as  capable  as  it  is 
sinister,  are  to  be  traced  in  every  fresh  development.  If  the  ministers 
were  ever  meant  to  be  a  screen,  it  is  a  screen  which  is  absolutely 
transparent.  The  origin  of  everything  is  the  King  —  always  the 
King.  M.  van  Ectvelde,  one  of  the  three  head  agents,  put  the  matter 
into  a  single  sentence:  "C'est  k  votre  majeste  qu'appartient  I'fitat." 
They  were  simply  stewards,  who  managed  the  estate  with  a  very 
alert  and  observant  owner  at  their  back. 

One  of  the  early  acts  was  enough  to  make  observers  a  little  thought- 
ful. It  was  the  announcement  of  the  right  to  issue  laws  by  arbitrary 
decrees  without  publishing  them  in  Europe.  There  should  be 
secret  laws,  which  could,  at  any  instant,  be  altered.  The  Bulletin 
Officiel  announced  that  "  Tous  les  Actes  du  Gouvernement  qu'il  y  a 
int^ret  k  rendre  publics  seront  ins^rds  au  Bulletin  OfficieV  Already 
it  is  clear  that  something  was  in  the  wind  which  might  shock  the 
rather  leathery  conscience  of  a  European  Concert.  Meanwhile, 
the  organization  of  the  State  went  forward.  A  Governor-General 
was  elected,  who  should  live  at  Boma,  which  was  made  the  capital. 
Under  him  were  fifteen  District  Commissaries,  who  should  govern 
so  many  districts  into  which  the  whole  country  was  divided.  The 
only  portion  which  was  at  that  time  at  all  developed  was  the  semi- 

9 


lo  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

civilized  Lower  Congo  at  the  mouth  of  the  river.  There  lay  the 
white  population.  The  upper  reaches  of  the  stream  and  of  its  great 
tributaries  were  known  only  to  a  few  devoted  missionaries  and  enter- 
prising explorers.  Grenfell  and  Bentley,  of  the  Missions,  with  Von 
Wissman,  the  Geman,  and  the  ever-energetic  Stanley,  were  the 
pioneers  who,  during  the  few  years  which  followed,  opened  up  the 
great  hinterland  which  was  to  be  the  scene  of  such  atrocious  events. 

But  the  work  of  the  explorer  had  soon  to  be  supplemented  and 
extended  by  the  soldier.  Whilst  the  Belgians  had  been  entering  the 
Congo  land  from  the  west,  the  slave-dealing  Arabs  had  penetrated 
from  the  east,  passing  down  the  river  as  far  as  Stanley  Falls.  There 
could  be  no  compromise  between  such  opposite  forces,  though  some 
attempt  was  made  to  find  one  by  electing  the  Arab  leader  as  Free 
State  Governor.  There  followed  a  long  scrambling  campaign, 
carried  on  for  many  years  between  the  Arab  slavers  on  the  one  side 
and  the  Congo  forces  upon  the  other  —  the  latter  consisting  largely 
of  cannibal  tribes  —  men  of  the  Stone  Age,  armed  with  the  weapons 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  is 
a  good  cause,  but  the  means  by  which  it  was  effected,  and  the  use 
of  Barbarians  who  ate  in  the  evening  those  whom  they  had  slain 
during  the  day,  are  as  bad  as  the  evil  itself.  Yet  there  is  no  denying 
the  energy  and  ability  of  the  Congo  leaders,  especially  of  Baron 
Dhanis.  By  the  year  1894  the  Belgian  expeditions  had  been  pushed 
as  far  as  Lake  Tanganyika,  the  Arab  strongholds  had  fallen,  and 
Dhanis  was  able  to  report  to  Brussels  that  the  campaign  was  at  an 
end,  and  that  slave-raiding  was  no  more.  The  new  State  could 
claim  that  they  had  saved  a  part  of  the  natives  from  slavery.  How 
they  proceeded  to  impose  upon  all  of  them  a  yoke,  compared  to 
which  the  old  slavery  was  merciful,  wiU  be  shown  in  these  pages. 
From  the  time  of  the  fall  of  the  Arab  power  the  Congo  Free  State 
was  only  called  upon  to  use  military  force  in  the  case  of  mutinies  of 
its  own  black  troops,  and  of  occasional  risings  of  its  own  tormented 
"citizens."  Master  of  its  own  house,  it  could  settle  down  to  exploit 
the  country  which  it  had  won. 

In  the  meantime  the  internal  policy  of  the  State  showed  a  tendency 
to  take  an  unusual  and  sinister  course.  I  have  already  expressed 
my  opinion  that  King  Leopold  was  not  guilty  of  conscious  hypocrisy 
in  the  beginning,  that  his  intentions  were  vaguely  philanthropic,  and 
that  it  was  only  by  degrees  that  he  sank  to  the  depths  which  will  be 
shown.    This  view  is  borne  out  by  some  of  the  earlier  edicts  of  the 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE       ii 

State.  In  1886,  a  long  pronouncement  upon  native  lands  ended  by 
the  words:  "All  acts  or  agreements  are  forbidden  which  tend  to  the 
expulsion  of  natives  from  the  territory  they  occupy,  or  to  deprive  them, 
directly  or  indirectly,  of  their  liberty  or  their  means  of  existence." 
Such  are  the  words  of  1886.  Before  the  end  of  1887,  an  Act  had 
been  published,  though  not  immediately  put  into  force,  which  had 
the  exactly  opposite  effect.  By  this  Act  all  lands  which  were  not 
actually  occupied  by  natives  were  proclaimed  to  be  the  property  of 
the  State.  Consider  for  a  moment  what  this  meant!  No  land  in 
such  a  country  is  actually  occupied  by  natives  save  the  actual  site 
of  their  villages,  and  the  scanty  fields  of  grain  or  manioc  which 
surround  them.  Everywhere  beyond  these  tiny  patches  extend  the 
plains  and  forests  which  have  been  the  ancestral  wandering  places 
of  the  natives,  and  which  contain  the  rubber,  the  camwood,  the 
copal,  the  ivory,  and  the  skins  which  are  the  sole  objects  of  their 
commerce.  At  a  single  stroke  of  a  pen  in  Brussels  everything  was 
taken  from  them,  not  only  the  country,  but  the  produce  of  the  country. 
How  could  they  trade  when  the  State  had  taken  from  them  everything 
which  they  had  to  offer?  How  could  the  foreign  merchant  do 
business  when  the  State  had  seized  everything  and  could  sell  it  for 
itself  direct  in  Europe?  Thus,  within  two  years  of  the  establish- 
ment of  the  State  by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  it  had  with  one  hand  seized 
the  whole  patrimony  of  those  natives  for  whose  '-moral  and  material 
advantage"  it  had  been  so  solicitous,  and  with  the  other  hand  it 
had  torn  up  that  clause  in  the  treaty  by  which  monopolies  were  for- 
bidden, and  equal  trade  rights  guaranteed  to  all.  How  blind  were 
the  Powers  not  to  see  what  sort  of  a  creature  they  had  made,  and  how 
short-sighted  not  to  take  urgent  steps  in  those  early  days  to  make 
it  retrace  its  steps  and  find  once  more  the  path  of  loyalty  and  justice! 
A  firm  word,  a  stern  act  at  that  time  in  the  presence  of  this  flagrant 
breach  of  international  agreement,  would  have  saved  all  Central 
Africa  from  the  horror  which  has  come  upon  it,  would  have  screened 
Belgium  from  a  lasting  disgrace,  and  would  have  spared  Europe  a 
question  which  has  already,  as  it  seems  to  me,  lowered  the  moral 
standing  of  all  the  nations,  and  the  end  of  which  is  not  yet. 

Having  obtained  possession  of  the  land  and  its  products,  the  next 
step  was  to  obtain  labour  by  which  these  products  could  be  safely 
garnered.  The  first  definite  move  in  this  direction  was  taken  in  the 
year  1888,  when,  with  that  odious  hypocrisy  which  has  been  the  last 
touch  in  so  many  of  these  transactions,  an  Act  was  produced  which 


12  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

was  described  in  the  Bulletin  Officiel  as  being  for  the  "Special  pro- 
tection of  the  black."  It  is  evident  that  the  real  protection  of  the 
black  in  matters  of  trade  was  to  offer  him  such  pay  as  would  induce 
him  to  do  a  day's  work,  and  to  let  him  choose  his  own  employment, 
as  is  done  with  the  Kaffirs  of  South  Africa,  or  any  other  native  popu- 
lation. This  Act  had  a  very  different  end.  It  allowed  blacks  to 
be  bound  over  in  terms  of  seven  years'  service  to  their  masters  in  a 
manner  which  was  in  truth  indistinguishable  from  slavery.  As  the 
negotiations  were  usually  carried  on  with  the  capita,  or  headman,  the 
unfortunate  servant  was  transferred  with  small  profit  to  himself, 
and  little  knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  his  servitude.  Under  the 
same  system  the  State  also  enlisted  its  employees,  including  the 
recruits  for  its  small  army.  This  army  was  supplemented  by  a  wild 
militia,  consisting  of  various  barbarous  tribes,  many  of  them  canni- 
bals, and  all  of  them  capable  of  any  excess  of  cruelty  or  outrage.  A 
German,  August  Boshart,  in  his  "Zehn  Jahre  Afrikanischen  Lebens," 
has  given  us  a  clear  idea  of  how  these  tribes  are  recruited,  and  of  the 
precise  meaning  of  the  attractive  word  "libdr^"  when  applied  to  a 
State  servant.  "Some  District  Commissary,"  he  says,  "receives 
instructions  to  furnish  a  certain  number  of  men  in  a  given  time.  He 
puts  himself  in  communication  with  the  chiefs,  and  invites  them  to 
a  palaver  at  his  residence.  These  chiefs,  as  a  rule,  already  have 
an  inkling  of  what  is  coming,  and,  if  made  wise  by  experience,  make 
a  virtue  of  necessity  and  present  themselves.  In  that  case  the 
negotiations  run  their  course  easily  enough;  each  chief  promises  to 
supply  a  certain  number  of  slaves,  and  receives  presents  in  return. 
It  may  happen,  however,  that  one  or  another  pays  no  heed  to  the 
friendly  invitation,  in  which  case  war  is  declared,  his  villages  are 
burned  down,  perhaps  some  of  his  people  are  shot,  and  his  stores 
or  gardens  are  plundered.  In  this  way  the  wild  king  is  soon  tamed, 
and  he  sues  for  peace,  which,  of  course,  is  granted  on  condition  of 
his  supplying  double  the  number  of  slaves.  These  men  are  entered 
in  the  State  books  as  *lib^r6s.'  To  prevent  their  running  away,  they 
are  put  in  irons  and  sent,  on  the  first  opportunity,  to  one  of  the 
military  camps,  where  their  irons  are  taken  off  and  they  are  drafted 
into  the  army.  The  District  Commissary  is  paid  £2  sterling  for 
every  serviceable  recruit." 

Having  taken  the  country  and  secured  labour  for  exploiting  it  in 
the  way  described.  King  Leopold  proceeded  to  take  further  steps 
for  its  development,  all  of  them  exceedingly  well  devised  for  the  object 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE       13 

in  view.  The  great  impediment  to  the  navigation  of  the  Congo 
had  lain  in  the  continuous  rapids  which  made  the  river  impassable 
from  Stanley  Pool  for  three  hundred  miles  down  to  Boma  at  the 
mouth.  A  company  was  now  formed  to  find  the  capital  by  which 
a  railway  should  be  built  between  these  two  points.  The  construction 
was  begun  in  1888,  and  was  completed  in  1898,  after  many  financial 
vicissitudes,  forming  a  work  which  deserves  high  credit  as  a  piece  of 
ingenious  engineering  and  of  sustained  energy.  Other  commercial 
companies,  of  which  more  will  be  said  hereafter,  were  formed  in  order 
to  exploit  large  districts  of  the  country  which  the  State  was  not 
yet  strong  enough  to  handle.  By  this  arrangement  the  companies 
found  the  capital  for  exploring,  station  building,  etc.,  while  the 
State  —  that  is,  the  King  —  retained  a  certain  portion,  usually 
half,  of  the  company's  shares.  The  plan  itself  is  not  necessarily 
a  vicious  one;  indeed,  it  closely  resembles  that  under  which  the 
Chartered  Company  of  Rhodesia  grants  mining  and  other  leases. 
The  scandal  arose  from  the  methods  by  which  these  companies 
proceeded  to  carry  out  their  ends  —  those  methods  being  the  same  as 
were  used  by  the  State,  on  whose  pattern  these  smaller  organizations 
were  moulded. 

In  the  meantime  King  Leopold,  feeling  the  weakness  of  his  personal 
position  in  face  of  the  great  enterprise  which  lay  before  him  in  Africa, 
endeavoured  more  and  more  to  draw  Belgium,  as  a  State,  into  the 
matter.  Already  the  Congo  State  was  largely  the  outcome  of  Belgian 
work  and  of  Belgian  money,  but,  theoretically,  there  was  no  con- 
nection between  the  two  countries.  Now  the  Belgian  Parliament 
was  won  over  to  advancing  ten  million  francs  for  the  use  of  the 
Congo,  and  thus  a  direct  connection  sprang  up  which  has  eventually 
led  to  annexation.  At  the  time  of  this  loan  King  Leopold  let  it  be 
known  that  he  had  left  the  Congo  Free  State  in  his  will  to  Belgium. 
In  this  document  appear  the  words,  "A  young  and  spacious  State, 
directed  from  Brussels,  has  pacifically  appeared  in  the  sunlight, 
thanks  to  the  benevolent  support  of  the  Powers  that  have  welcomed 
its  appearance.  Some  Belgians  administer  it,  while  others,  each  day 
more  numerous,  there  increase  their  wealth."  So  he  flashed  the  gold 
before  the  eyes  of  his  European  subjects.  Verily,  if  King  Leopold 
deceived  other  Powers,  he  reserved  the  most  dangerous  of  all  his 
deceits  for  his  own  country.  The  day  on  which  they  turned  from 
their  own  honest,  healthy  development  to  follow  the  Congo  lure,  and 
to  administer  without  any  previous  colonial  experience  a  country 


14  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

more  than  sixty  times  their  own  size,  will  prove  to  have  been  a  dark 
day  in  Belgian  history. 

The  Berlin  Conference  of  1885  marks  the  first  International 
session  upon  the  affairs  of  the  Congo.  The  second  was  the  Brussels 
Conference  of  1889-90.  It  is  amazing  to  find  that  after  these  years 
of  experience  the  Powers  were  still  ready  to  accept  King  Leopold's 
professions  at  their  face  value.  It  is  true  that  none  of  the  more 
sinister  developments  had  been  conspicuous,  but  the  legislation  of 
the  State  with  regard  to  labour  and  trade  was  already  such  as  to  sug- 
gest the  turn  which  affairs  would  take  in  future  if  not  curbed  by  a 
strong  hand.  One  Power,  and  one  only,  Holland,  had  the  sagacity 
to  appreciate  the  true  situation,  and  the  independence  to  show  its 
dissatisfaction.  The  outcome  of  the  sittings  was  various  philan- 
thropic resolutions  intended  to  strengthen  the  new  State  in  dealing 
with  that  slave  trade  it  was  destined  to  re-introduce  in  its  most  odious 
form.  We  are  too  near  to  these  events,  and  they  are  too  painfully 
intimate,  to  permit  us  to  see  humour  in  them;  but  the  historian  of 
the  future,  when  he  reads  that  the  object  of  the  European  Concert 
was  "to  protect  effectually  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  Africa," 
may  find  it  difficult  to  suppress  a  smile.  This  was  the  last  European 
assembly  to  deal  with  the  affairs  of  the  Congo.  May  the  next  be  for 
the  purpose  of  taking  steps  to  truly  carry  out  those  high  ends  which 
have  been  forever  spoken  of  and  never  reduced  to  practice. 

The  most  important  practical  outcome  of  the  Brussels  Conference 
was  that  the  Powers  united  to  free  the  new  State  from  those  free 
port  promises  which  it  had  made  in  1885,  and  to  permit  it  in  future 
to  levy  ten  per  cent,  upon  imports.  The  Act  was  hung  up  for  two 
years  owing  to  the  opposition  of  Holland,  but  the  fact  of  its  adoption 
by  the  other  Powers,  and  the  renewed  mandate  given  to  King  Leo- 
pold, strengthened  the  position  of  the  new  State  to  such  an  extent 
that  it  found  no  difficulty  in  securing  a  further  loan  from  Belgium 
of  twenty-five  millions  of  francs,  upon  condition  that,  after  ten  years, 
Belgium  should  have  the  option  of  taking  over  the  Congo  lands  as  a 
colony. 

If  in  the  years  which  immediately  succeeded  the  Brussels  Con- 
ference—  from  1890  to  1894  —  a  bird's-eye  view  could  be  taken 
of  the  enormous  river  which,  with  its  tributaries,  forms  a  great  twisted 
fan  radiating  over  the  whole  centre  of  Africa,  one  would  mark  in 
all  directions  symptoms  of  European  activity.  At  the  Lower  Congo 
one  would  see  crowds  of  natives,  impressed  for  the  service  and 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE      15 

guarded  by  black  soldiers,  working  at  the  railway.  At  Boma  and 
at  Leopoldsville,  the  two  termini  of  the  projected  line,  cities  are 
rising,  with  stations,  wharves  and  public  buildings.  In  the  extreme 
southeast  one  would  see  an  expedition  under  Stairs  exploring  and 
annexing  the  great  district  of  Katanga,  which  abuts  upon  Northern 
Rhodesia.  In  the  furthest  northeast  and  along  the  whole  eastern 
border,  small  military  expeditions  would  be  disclosed,  fighting  against 
rebellious  blacks  or  Arab  raiders.  Then,  along  all  the  lines  of  the 
rivers,  posts  were  being  formed  and  stations  established  —  some 
by  the  State  and  some  by  the  various  concessionnaire  companies 
for  the  development  of  their  commerce. 

In  the  meantime,  the  State  was  tightening  its  grip  upon  the  land 
with  its  products,  and  was  working  up  the  system  which  was  destined 
to  produce  such  grim  results  in  the  near  future.  The  independent 
traders  were  discouraged  and  stamped  out,  Belgium,  as  well  as  Dutch, 
English  and  French.  Some  of  the  loudest  protests  against  the  new 
order  may  be  taken  from  Belgian  sources.  Everywhere,  in  flagrant 
disregard  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  the  State  proclaimed  itself  to  be 
the  sole  landlord  and  the  sole  trader.  In  some  cases  it  worked 
its  own  so-called  property,  in  other  cases  it  leased  it.  Even  those 
who  had  striven  to  help  King  Leopold  in  the  earlier  stages  of  his 
enterprise  were  thrown  overboard.  Major  Parminter,  himself 
engaged  in  trade  upon  the  Congo,  sums  up  the  situation  in  1902  as 
follows:  "To  sum  up,  the  application  of  the  new  decrees  of  the 
Government  signifies  this:  that  the  State  considers  as  its  private 
property  the  whole  of  the  Congo  Basin,  excepting  the  sites  of  the 
natives'  villages  and  gardens.  It  decrees  that  all  the  products  of 
this  immense  region  are  its  private  property,  and  it  monopolizes  the 
trade  in  them.  As  regards  the  primitive  proprietors,  the  native  tribes, 
they  are  dispossessed  by  a  simple  circular;  permission  is  graciously 
granted  to  them  to  collect  such  products,  but  only  on  condition  that 
they  bring  them  for  sale  to  the  State  for  whatever  the  latter  may  be 
pleased  to  give  them.  As  regards  alien  traders,  they  are  prohibited 
in  all  this  territory  from  trading  with  the  natives." 

Everywhere  there  were  stern  orders  —  to  the  natives  on  the  one 
hand,  that  they  had  no  right  to  gather  the  products  of  their  own 
forests;  to  independent  traders  on  the  other  hand,  that  they  were 
liable  to  punishment  if  they  bought  anything  from  the  natives.  In 
January,  1892,  District  Commissary  Baert  wrote:  "The  native 
of  the  district  of  Ubangi-Welle  are  not  authorized  to  gather  rubber. 


i6  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

It  has  been  notified  to  them  that  they  can  only  receive  permission  to 
do  so  on  condition  that  they  gather  the  produce  for  the  exclusive 
benefit  of  the  State."  Captain  Le  Marinel,  a  litde  later,  is  even  more 
explicit:  "I  have  decided,"  he  says,  "to  enforce  rigorously  the  rights 
of  the  State  over  its  domain,  and,  in  consequence,  cannot  allow  the 
natives  to  convert  to  their  own  profit,  or  to  sell  to  others,  any  part  of 
the  rubber  or  ivory  forming  the  fruits  of  the  domain.  Traders  who 
purchase,  or  attempt  to  purchase,  such  fruits  of  this  domain  from 
the  natives  —  which  fruits  the  State  only  authorizes  the  natives  to 
gather  subject  to  the  condition  that  they  are  brought  to  it  —  render 
themselves,  in  my  opinion,  guilty  of  receiving  stolen  goods,  and  I 
shall  denounce  them  to  the  judicial  authorities,  so  that  proceedings 
may  be  taken  against  them."  This  last  edict  was  in  the  Bangala 
district,  but  it  was  followed  at  once  by  another  from  the  more  settled 
Equateur  district,  which  shows  that  the  strict  adoption  of  the  system 
was  universal.  In  May,  1892,  Lieutenant  Lemaire  proclaims: 
"  Considering  that  no  concession  has  been  granted  to  gather  rubber 
in  the  domains  of  the  State  within  this  district,  (i)  natives  can 
only  gather  rubber  on  condition  of  selling  the  same  to  the  State; 
(2)  any  person  or  persons  or  vessels  having  in  his  or  their  possession, 
or  on  board,  more  than  one  kilogramme  of  rubber  will  have  a  proch- 
verhal  drawn  up  against  him,  or  them,  or  it;  and  the  ship  can  be 
confiscated  without  prejudice  to  any  subsequent  proceedings." 

The  sight  of  these  insignificant  lieutenants  and  captains,  who  are 
often  non-commissioned  officers  of  the  Belgian  army,  issuing  proc- 
lamations which  were  in  distinct  contradiction  to  the  expressed  will 
of  all  the  great  Powers  of  the  world,  might  at  the  time  have  seemed 
ludicrous;  but  the  history  of  the  next  seventeen  years  was  to  prove 
that  a  small  malignant  force,  driven  on  by  greed,  may  prove  to  be 
more  powerful  than  a  vague  general  philanthropy,  strong  only  in 
good  intentions  and  platitudes.  During  these  years  —  from  1890 
to  1895  —  whatever  indignation  might  be  felt  among  traders  over 
the  restrictions  placed  upon  them,  the  only  news  received  by  the 
general  public  from  the  Congo  Free  State  concerned  the  founding  of 
new  stations,  and  the  idea  prevailed  that  King  Leopold's  enterprise 
was  indeed  working  out  upon  the  humanitarian  lines  which  had  been 
originally  planned.  Then,  for  the  first  time,  incidents  occurred 
which  gave  some  glimpse  of  the  violence  and  anarchy  which  really 
prevailed. 

The  first  of  these,  so  far  as  Great  Britain  is  concerned,  lay  in  the 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE       17 

treatment  of  natives  from  Sierra  Leone,  Lagos,  and  other  British 
Settlements,  who  had  been  engaged  by  the  Belgians  to  come  to 
Congoland  and  help  in  railway  construction  and  other  work.  Com- 
ing from  the  settled  order  of  such  a  colony  as  Sierra  Leone  or  Lagos, 
these  natives  complained  loudly  when  they  found  themselves  working 
side  by  side  with  impressed  Congolese,  and  under  the  discipline  of 
the  armed  sentinels  of  the  Force  Publique.  They  were  discontented 
and  the  discontent  was  met  by  corporal  punishment.  The  matter 
grew  to  the  dimensions  of  a  scandal. 

In  answer  to  a  question  asked  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  March 
12th,  1896,  Mr.  Chamberlain,  as  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies, 
stated  that  complaints  had  been  received  of  these  British  subjects 
having  been  employed  without  their  consent  as  soldiers,  and  of  their 
having  been  cruelly  flogged,  and,  in  some  cases,  shot;  and  he  added: 
"They  were  engaged  with  the  knowledge  of  Her  Majesty's  represen- 
tatives, and  every  possible  precaution  was  taken  in  their  interests; 
but,  in  consequence  of  the  complaints  received,  the  recruitment  of 
labourers  for  the  Congo  has  been  prohibited." 

This  refusal  of  the  recruitment  of  labourers  by  Great  Britain  was 
the  first  public  and  national  sign  of  disapproval  of  Congolese  methods. 
A  few  years  later,  a  more  pointed  one  was  given,  when  the  Italian  War 
Ministry  refused  to  allow  their  officers  to  serve  with  the  Congo  forces. 

Early  in  1895  occurred  the  Stokes  affair,  which  moved  public 
opinion  deeply,  both  in  this  country  and  in  Germany.  Charles 
Henry  Stokes  was  an  Englishman  by  birth,  but  he  resided  in  German 
East  Africa,  was  the  recipient  of  a  German  Decoration  for  his  services 
on  behalf  of  German  colonization,  and  formed  his  trading  caravans 
from  a  German  base,  with  East  African  natives  as  his  porters.  He 
had  led  such  a  caravan  over  the  Congo  State  border,  when  he  was  ar- 
rested by  Captain  Lothaire,  an  officer  in  command  of  some  Congolese 
troops.  The  unfortunate  Stokes  may  well  have  thought  himself 
safe  as  the  subject  of  one  great  Power  and  the  agent  of  another,  but 
he  was  tried  instantly  in  a  most  informal  manner  upon  a  charge  of 
selling  guns  to  the  natives,  was  condemned,  and  was  hanged  on  the 
following  morning.  When  Captain  Lothaire  reported  his  proceed- 
ings to  his  superiors  they  signified  their  approbation  by  promoting 
him  to  the  high  rank  of  Commissaire- General. 

The  news  of  this  tragedy  excited  as  much  indignation  in  Berlin 
as  in  London.  Faced  with  the  facts,  the  representatives  of  the 
Free  State  in  Brussels  —  that  is,  the  agents  of  the  KLing  —  were 


i8  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

compelled  to  admit  the  complete  illegality  of  the  whole  incident, 
and  could  only  fall  back  upon  the  excuse  that  Lothaire's  action 
was  bona-fide,  and  free  from  personal  motive.  This  is  by  no  means 
certain,  for  as  Baron  von  Marschall  pointed  out  to  the  acting  British 
Ambassador  at  Berlin,  Stokes  was  known  to  be  a  successful  trader 
in  ivory,  exporting  it  by  the  east  route,  and  so  depriving  the  ofiicers 
of  the  Congo  Government  of  a  ten  per  cent,  commission,  which  would 
be  received  by  them  if  it  were  exported  by  the  west  route.  "This 
was  the  reason,"  the  report  continued,  quoting  the  German  States- 
man's words,  "that  he  had  been  done  away  with,  and  not  on  account 
of  an  alleged  sale  of  arms  to  Arabs,  his  death  being,  in  fact,  not  an 
act  of  justice,  but  one  of  commercial  protection,  neither  more  nor 
less." 

This  was  one  reading  of  the  situation.  Whether  it  was  a  true 
one  or  not,  there  could  be  no  two  opinions  as  to  the  illegality  of  the 
proceedings.  Under  pressure  from  England,  Lothaire  was  tried  at 
Boma  and  acquitted.  He  was  again,  under  the  same  pressure,  tried 
at  Brussels,  when  the  Prosecuting  Counsel  thought  it  consistent  with 
his  duty  to  plead  for  an  acquittal  and  the  proceedings  became  a 
fiasco.  There  the  matter  was  allowed  to  remain.  A  Blue  Book 
of  1 88  pages  is  the  last  monument  to  Charles  Henry  Stokes,  and 
his  executioner  returned  to  high  office  in  the  Congo  Free  State,  where 
his  name  soon  recurred  in  the  accounts  of  the  violent  and  high-handed 
proceedings  which  make  up  the  history  of  that  country.  He  was 
appointed  Director  of  the  Antwerp  Society  for  the  Commerce  of  the 
Congo  —  an  appointment  for  which  King  Leopold  must  have  been 
responsible  —  and  he  managed  the  affairs  of  that  company  until 
he.  was  imphcated  in  the  Mongalla  massacres,  of  which  more  will 
be  said  hereafter. 

It  has  been  necessary  to  describe  the  case  of  Stokes,  because  it 
is  historical,  but  nothing  is  further  from  my  intention  than  to  address 
national  amour  propre  in  the  matter.  It  was  a  mere  accident  that 
Stokes  was  an  Englishman,  and  the  outrage  remains  the  same  had 
he  been  a  citizen  of  any  State.  The  cause  I  plead  is  too  broad,  and 
also  too  lofty,  to  be  supported  by  any  narrower  appeals  than  those 
which  may  be  addressed  to  all  humanity.  I  will  proceed  to  describe 
a  case  which  occurred  a  few  years  later  to  show  that  men  of  other 
nationalities  suffered  as  well  as  the  English.  Stokes,  the  English- 
man, was  killed,  and  his  death,  it  was  said  by  some  Congolese  apolo- 
gists, was  due  to  his  not  having,  after  his  summary  trial,  announced 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE       19 

that  he  would  lodge  an  immediate  appeal  to  the  higher  court  at  Boma. 
Rabinck,  the  Austrian,  the  victim  of  similar  proceedings,  did  appeal 
to  the  higher  court  at  Boma,  and  it  is  interesting  to  see  what  advantage 
he  gained  by  doing  so. 

Rabinck  was,  as  I  have  said,  an  Austrian  from  Olmutz,  a  man  of 
a  gentle  and  lovable  nature,  popular  with  all  who  knew  him,  and 
remarkable,  as  several  have  testified,  for  his  just  and  kindly  treatment 
of  the  natives.  He  had,  for  some  years,  traded  with  the  people  of 
Katanga,  which  is  the  southeastern  portion  of  the  Congo  State 
where  it  abuts  upon  British  Central  Africa.  The  natives  were  at 
the  time  in  arms  against  the  Belgians,  but  Rabinck  had  acquired 
such  influence  among  them  that  he  was  still  able  to  carry  on  his 
trade  in  ivory  and  rubber  for  which  he  held  a  permit  from  the  Katanga 
Company. 

Shortly  after  receiving  this  permit,  for  which  he  had  paid  a  con- 
siderable sum,  certain  changes  were  made  in  the  company  by  which 
the  State  secured  a  controlling  influence  in  it.  A  new  manager,  Major 
Weyns,  appeared,  who  represented  the  new  regime,  superseding  M. 
L^veque,  who  had  sold  the  permits  in  the  name  of  the  original  com- 
pany. Major  Weyns  was  zealous  that  the  whole  trade  of  the  country 
should  belong  to  the  Concessionnaire  Company,  which  was  practically 
the  Government,  according  to  the  usual,  but  internationally  illegal, 
habit  of  the  State.  To  secure  this  trade,  the  first  step  was  evidently 
to  destroy  so  well-known  and  successful  a  private  trader  as  M. 
Rabinck.  In  spite  of  his  permits,  therefore,  a  charge  was  trumped 
up  against  him  of  having  traded  illegally  in  rubber  —  an  offence 
which,  even  if  he  had  no  permit,  was  an  impossibility  in  the  face 
of  that  complete  freedom  of  trade  which  was  guaranteed  by  the 
Treaty  of  Berlin.  The  young  Austrian  could  not  bring  himself  to 
believe  that  the  matter  was  serious.  His  letters  are  extant,  showing 
that  he  regarded  the  matter  as  so  preposterous  that  he  could  not  feel 
any  fears  upon  the  subject.  He  was  soon  to  be  undeceived,  and  his 
eyes  were  opened  too  late  to  the  character  of  the  men  and  the  organi- 
zation with  which  he  was  dealing.  Major  Weyns  sat  in  court- 
martial  upon  him.  The  offence  with  which  he  was  charged,  dealing 
illegally  in  rubber,  was  one  which  could  only  be  punished  by  a 
maximum  imprisonment  of  a  month.  This  would  not  serve  the 
purpose  in  view.  Major  Weyns  within  forty  minutes  tried  the  case, 
condemned  the  prisoner,  and  sentenced  him  to  a  year's  imprisonment. 
There  was  an  attempt  to  excuse  this  monstrous  sentence  afterward  by 


20  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

the  assertion  that  the  crime  punished  was  that  of  selling  guns  to 
the  natives,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  there  was  at  the  time  no  mention 
of  anything  of  the  sort,  as  is  proved  by  the  existing  minutes  of  the 
trial.  Rabinck  naturally  appealed  against  such  a  sentence.  He 
would  have  been  wiser  had  he  submitted  to  it  in  the  nearest  guard- 
house. In  that  case  he  might  possibly  have  escaped  with  his  life. 
In  the  other,  he  was  doomed.  "He  will  go,"  said  Major  Weyns, 
"on  such  a  nice  little  voyage  that  he  will  act  like  this  no  more,  and 
others  will  take  example  from  it."  The  voyage  in  question  was  the 
two  thousand  miles  which  separated  Katanga  from  the  Appeal 
Court  at  Boma.  He  was  to  travel  all  this  way  under  the  sole  escort 
of  black  soldiers,  who  had  their  own  instructions.  The  unfortunate 
man  felt  that  he  could  never  reach  his  destination  alive.  "Rumours 
have  it,"  he  wrote  to  his  relatives,  "that  Europeans  who  have  been 
taken  are  poisoned,  so  if  I  disappear  without  further  news  you  may 
guess  what  has  become  of  me."  Nothing  more  was  heard  from  him 
save  two  agonized  letters,  begging  officials  to  speed  him  on  his  way. 
He  died,  as  he  had  foreseen,  on  the  trip  down  the  Congo,  and  was 
hurriedly  buried  in  a  wayside  station  when  two  hours  more  would 
have  brought  the  body  to  Leopoldville.  If  it  is  possible  to  add  a 
darker  shadow  to  the  black  business  it  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  apolo- 
gists of  the  State  endeavoured  to  make  the  world  believe  that  their 
victim's  death  was  due  to  his  own  habit  of  taking  morphia.  The 
fact  is  denied  by  four  creditable  witnesses,  who  knew  him  well,  but 
most  of  all  is  it  denied  by  the  activity  and  energy  which  had  made 
him  one  of  the  leading  traders  of  Central  Africa  —  too  good  a  trader 
to  be  allowed  open  competition  with  King  Leopold's  huge  commercial 
monopoly.  As  a  last  and  almost  inconceivable  touch,  the  whole  of 
the  dead  man's  caravans  and  outfits,  amounting  to  some  ;^i 5,000, 
were  seized  by  those  who  had  driven  him  to  his  death,  and  by  the 
last  reports  neither  his  relatives  nor  his  creditors  have  received  any 
portion  of  this  large  sum.  Consider  the  whole  story  and  say  if  it  is 
exaggeration  to  state  that  Gustav  Maria  Rabinck  was  robbed 
and  murdered  by  the  Congo  Free  State. 

Having  sho%vn  in  these  two  examples  the  way  in  which  the  Congo 
Free  State  has  dared  to  treat  the  citizens  of  European  States  who 
have  traded  within  her  borders,  I  will  now  proceed  to  detail,  in 
chronological  order,  some  account  of  the  dark  story  of  that  State's 
relations  to  the  subject  races,  for  whose  moral  and  material  advantage 
we  and  other  European  Powers  have  answered.     For  every  case  I 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE       21 

chronicle  there  are  a  hundred  which  are  known,  but  which  cannot 
here  be  dealt  with.  For  every  one  known,  there  are  ten  thousand, 
the  story  of  which  never  came  to  Europe.  Consider  how  vast  is  the 
country,  and  how  few  the  missionaries  or  consuls  who  alone  would 
report  such  matters.  Consider  also  that  every  official  of  the  Congo 
State  is  sworn  neither  at  the  time  nor  afterward  to  reveal  any  matter 
that  may  have  come  to  his  knowledge.  Consider,  lastly,  that  the 
missionary  or  consul  acts  as  a  deterrent,  and  that  it  is  in  the  huge 
stretch  of  country  where  neither  are  to  be  found  that  the  agent  has 
his  own  unfettered  way.  With  all  these  considerations,  is  it  not 
clear  that  all  the  terrible  facts  which  we  know  are  but  the  mere 
margin  of  that  welter  of  violence  and  injustice  which  the  Jesuit, 
Father  Vermeersch,  has  summed  up  in  the  two  words,  "Immeasur- 
able Misery!" 


in 

THE  WORKING  OF  THE  SYSTEM 

HAVING  claimed,  as  I  have  shown,  the  whole  of  the  land,  and 
therefore  the  whole  of  its  products,  the  State  —  that  is,  the 
King  —  proceeded  to  construct  a  system  by  which  these  pro- 
ducts could  be  gathered  most  rapidly  and  at  least  cost.  The  essence 
of  this  system  was  that  the  people  who  had  been  dispossessed  (ironic- 
ally called  "  citizens")  were  to  be  forced  to  gather,  for  the  profit  of  the 
State,  those  very  products  which  had  been  taken  from  them.  This 
was  to  be  effected  by  two  means;  the  one,  taxation,  by  which  an 
arbitrary  amount,  ever  growing  larger  until  it  consumed  almost  their 
whole  lives  in  the  gathering,  should  be  claimed  for  nothing.  The 
other,  so-called  barter  by  which  the  natives  were  paid  for  the  stuff 
exactly  what  the  State  chose  to  give,  and  in  the  form  the  State  chose 
to  give  it,  there  being  no  competition  allowed  from  any  other  pur- 
chaser. This  remuneration,  ridiculous  in  value,  took  the  most 
absurd  shape,  the  natives  being  compelled  to  take  it,  whatever  the 
amount,  and  however  little  they  might  desire  it.  Consul  Thesiger, 
in  1908,  describing  their  so-called  barter,  says:  "The  goods  he  pro- 
ceeds to  distribute,  giving  a  hat  to  one  man,  or  an  iron  hoe-head  to 
another,  and  so  on.  Each  recipient  is  then  at  the  end  of  a  month 
responsible  for  so  many  balls  of  rubber.  No  choice  of  the  objects  is 
given,  no  refusal  is  allowed.  If  any  one  makes  any  objection,  the 
stuff  is  thrown  down  at  his  door,  and  whether  it  is  taken  or  left,  the 
man  is  responsible  for  so  many  balls  at  the  end  of  the  month.  The 
total  amounts  are  fixed  by  the  agents  at  the  maximum  which  the 
inhabitants  are  capable  of  producing." 

But  is  it  not  clear  that  no  natives,  especially  tribes  who,  as 
Stanley  has  recorded,  had  remarkable  aptitude  for  trade,  would 
do  business  at  all  upon  such  terms  ?  That  is  just  where  the  system 
came  in. 

By  this  system  some  two  thousand  white  agents  were  scattered  over 
the  Free  State  to  collect  the  produce.    These  whites  were  placed 


THE  WORKING  OF  THE  SYSTEM  23 

in  ones  and  twos  in  the  more  central  points,  and  each  was  given  a 
tract  of  country  containing  a  certain  number  of  villages.  By  the 
help  of  the  inmates  he  was  to  gather  the  rubber,  which  was  the  most 
valuable  asset.  These  whites,  many  of  whom  were  men  of  low 
morale  before  they  left  Europe,  were  wretchedly  paid,  the  scale  run- 
ning from  150  to  300  francs  a  month.  This  pay  they  might  supple- 
ment by  a  commission  or  bonus  on  the  amount  of  rubber  collected. 
If  their  returns  were  large  it  meant  increased  pay,  official  praise,  a 
more  speedy  return  to  Europe,  and  a  better  chance  of  promotion. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  returns  were  small,  it  meant  poverty,  harsh 
reproof  and  degradation.  No  system  could  be  devised  by  which 
a  body  of  men  could  be  so  driven  to  attain  results  at  any  cost.  It  is 
not  to  the  absolute  discredit  of  Belgians  that  such  an  existence  should 
have  demoralized  them,  and,  indeed,  there  were  other  nationalities 
besides  Belgians  in  the  ranks  of  the  agents.  I  doubt  if  Englishmen, 
Americans,  or  Germans  could  have  escaped  the  same  result  had  they 
been  exposed  in  a  tropical  country  to  similar  temptations. 

And  now,  the  two  thousand  agents  being  in  place,  and  eager  to 
enforce  the  collection  of  rubber  upon  very  unwilling  natives,  how 
did  the  system  intend  that  they  should  set  about  it?  The  method 
was  as  efficient  as  it  was  absolutely  diabolical.  Each  agent  was  given 
control  over  a  certain  number  of  savages,  drawn  from  the  wild  tribes, 
but  armed  with  firearms.  One  or  more  of  these  was  placed  in  each 
village  to  ensure  that  the  villagers  should  do  their  task.  These  are 
the  men  who  are  called  "capitas,"  or  head-men  in  the  accounts,  and 
who  are  the  actual,  though  not  the  moral,  perpetrators  of  so  many 
horrible  deeds.  Imagine  the  nightmare  which  lay  upon  each  village 
while  this  barbarian  squatted  in  the  midst  of  it.  Day  or  night  they 
could  never  get  away  from  him.  He  called  for  palm  wine.  He 
called  for  women.  He  beat  them,  mutilated  them,  and  shot  them 
down  at  his  pleasure.  He  enforced  public  incest  in  order  to  amuse 
himself  by  the  sight.  Sometimes  they  plucked  up  spirit  and  killed 
him.  The  Belgian  Commission  records  that  142  capitas  had  been 
killed  in  seven  months  in  a  single  district.  Then  came  the  punitive 
expedition,  and  the  destruction  of  the  whole  community.  The  more 
terror  the  capita  inspired,  the  more  useful  he  was,  the  more  eagerly 
the  villagers  obeyed  him,  and  the  more  rubber  yielded  its  commission 
to  the  agent.  When  the  amount  fell  off,  then  the  capita  was  himself 
made  to  feel  some  of  those  physical  pains  which  he  had  inflicted  upon 
others.    Often  the  white  agent  far  exceeded  in  cruelty  the  barbarian 


24  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

who  carried  out  his  commissions.  Often,  too,  the  white  man  pushed 
the  black  aside,  and  acted  himself  as  torturer  and  executioner. 
As  a  rule,  however,  the  relationship  was  as  I  have  stated,  the  out- 
rages being  actually  committed  by  the  capitas,  but  with  the  approval 
of,  and  often  in  the  presence  of,  their  white  employers. 

It  would  be  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  agents  were  all  equally 
merciless,  and  that  there  were  not  some  who  were  torn  in  two  by  the 
desire  for  wealth  and  promotion  on  the  one  side  and  the  horror  of 
their  daily  task  upon  the  other.  Here  are  two  illustrative  extracts 
from  the  letters  of  Lieutenant  Tilkens,  as  quoted  by  Mr.  Vandervelde 
in  the  debate  in  the  Belgian  Chamber:  "The  steamer  v.  d.  Kerkhove 
is  coming  up  the  Nile.  It  will  require  the  colossal  number  of  fifteen 
hundred  porters  —  unhappy  blacks!  I  cannot  think  of  them.  I  ask 
myself  how  I  shall  find  such  a  number.  If  the  roads  were  passable 
it  would  make  some  difference,  but  they  are  hardly  cleared  of  morasses 
where  many  will  meet  their  death.  Hunger  and  weariness  will  make 
an  end  of  many  more  in  the  eight  days'  march.  How  much  blood 
will  the  transport  make  to  flow  ?  Already  I  have  had  to  make  war 
three  times  against  the  chieftains  who  will  not  take  part  in  this  work. 
The  people  prefer  to  die  in  the  forest  instead  of  doing  this  work.  If 
a  chieftain  refuses,  it  is  war,  and  this  horrible  war  —  perfect  firearms 
against  spear  and  lance.  A  chieftain  has  just  left  me  with  the  com- 
plaint: *  My  village  is  in  ruins,  my  women  are  killed.'  But  what  can 
I  do?  I  am  often  compelled  to  put  these  unhappy  chieftains  into 
chains  until  they  collect  one  or  two  hundred  porters.  Very  often  my 
soldiers  find  the  villages  empty,  then  they  seize  the  women  and 
children." 

To  his  mother  he  writes: 

"Com.  Verstraeten  visited  my  station  and  highly  congratulated 
me.  He  said  the  attitude  of  his  report  hung  upon  the  quantity  of 
rubber  I  would  bring.  My  quantity  rose  from  360  kilos  in  September 
to  1,500  in  October,  and  from  January  it  will  be  4,000  per  month, 
which  gives  me  500  francs  over  my  pay.  Am  I  not  a  lucky  fellow  ? 
And  if  I  continue,  in  two  years  I  shall  have  reached  an  additional 
12,000  francs." 

But  a  year  later  he  writes  in  a  different  tone  to  Major  Leussens: 

"I  look  forward  to  a  general  rising.  I  warned  you  before,  I 
think,  already  in  my  last  letter.    The  cause  is  always  the  same. 


THE  WORKING  OF  THE  SYSTEM  25 

The  natives  are  weary  of  the  hitherto  rSgime  —  transport  labour, 
collection  of  rubber,  preparation  of  food  stores  for  blacks  and  whites. 
Again  for  three  months  I  have  had  to  fight  with  only  ten  days'  rest. 
I  have  152  prisoners.  For  two  years  now  I  have  been  carrying  on 
war  in  this  neighbourhood.  But  I  cannot  say  I  have  subjected  the 
people.  They  prefer  to  die.  What  can  I  do  ?  I  am  paid  to  do  my 
work,  I  am  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  my  superiors,  and  I  follow  orders 
as  discipline  requires." 

Let  us  consider  now  for  an  instant  the  chain  of  events  which 
render  such  a  situation  not  only  possible,  but  inevitable.  The  State 
is  run  with  the  one  object  of  producing  revenue.  For  this  end  all 
land  and  its  produce  are  appropriated.  How,  then,  is  this  produce 
to  be  gathered?  It  can  only  be  by  the  natives.  But  if  the  natives 
gather  it  they  must  be  paid  their  price,  which  will  diminish  profits, 
or  else  they  will  refuse  to  work.  Then  they  must  be  made  to  work. 
But  the  agents  are  too  few  to  make  them  work.  Then  they  must 
employ  such  sub-agents  as  will  strike  most  terror  into  the  people. 
But  if  these  sub-agents  are  to  make  the  people  work  all  the  time, 
then  they  must  themselves  reside  in  the  villages.  So  a  capita  must 
be  sent  as  a  constant  terror  to  each  village.  Is  it  not  clear  that  these 
steps  are  not  accidental,  but  are  absolutely  essential  to  the  original 
idea?  Given  the  confiscation  of  the  land,  all  the  rest  must  logically 
follow.  It  is  utterly  futile,  therefore,  to  imagine  that  any  reform  can 
set  matters  right.  Such  a  thing  is  impossible.  Until  unfettered  trade 
is  unconditionally  restored,  as  it  now  exists  in  every  German  and 
English  colony,  it  is  absolutely  out  of  the  question  that  any  specious 
promises  or  written  decrees  can  modify  the  situation.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  if  trade  be  put  upon  this  natural  basis,  then  for  many  years 
the  present  owners  of  the  Congo  land,  instead  of  sharing  dividends, 
must  pay  out  at  least  a  million  a  year  to  administer  the  country, 
exactly  as  England  pays  half  a  million  a  year  to  administer  the 
neighbouring  land  of  Nigeria.  To  grasp  that  fact  is  to  understand 
the  root  of  the  whole  question. 

And  one  more  point  before  we  proceed  to  the  dark  catalogue  of  the 
facts.  Where  did  the  responsibility  for  these  deeds  of  blood,  these 
thousands  of  cold-blooded  murders  lie?    Was  it  with  the  capita? 

He  was  a  cannibal  and  a  ruffian,  but  if  he  did  not  inspire  terror  in  the 
village  he  was  himself  punished  by  the  agent.  Was  it,  then,  with  the 
agent  ?  He  was  a  degraded  man,  and  yet,  as  I  have  already  said,  no 
men  could  serve  on  such  terms  in  a  tropical  country  without  degrad?L- 


26  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

tion.  He  was  goaded  and  driven  to  crime  by  the  constant  clamour 
from  those  above  him.  Was  it,  then,  with  the  District  Commissary  ? 
He  had  reached  a  responsible  and  well-paid  post,  which  he  would 
lose  if  his  particular  district  fell  behind  in  the  race  of  production. 
Was  it,  then,  with  the  Governor- General  at  Boma?  He  was  a  man 
of  a  hardened  conscience,  but  for  him  also  there  was  mitigation.  He 
was  there  for  a  purpose  with  definite  orders  from  home  which  it  was 
his  duty  to  carry  through.  It  would  take  a  man  of  exceptional 
character  to  throw  up  his  high  position,  sacrifice  his  career,  and 
refuse  to  carry  out  the  evil  system  which  had  been  planned  before 
he  was  allotted  a  place  in  it.  Where,  then,  was  the  guilt  ?  There  were 
half  a  dozen  officials  in  Brussels  who  were,  as  shown  already,  so 
many  bailiffs  paid  to  manage  a  property  upon  lines  laid  down  for 
them.  Trace  back  the  chain  from  the  red-handed  savage,  through 
the  worried,  bilious  agent,  the  pompous  Commissary,  the  dignified 
Governor- General,  the  smooth  diplomatist,  and  you  come  finally, 
without  a  break,  and  without  a  possibility  of  mitigation  or  excuse,  up 
the  cold,  scheming  brain  which  framed  and  drove  the  whole  machine. 
It  is  upon  the  King,  always  the  King,  that  the  guilt  must  lie.  He 
planned  it,  knowing  the  results  which  must  follow.  They  did  follow. 
He  was  well  informed  of  it.  Again  and  again,  and  yet  again,  his 
attention  was  drawn  to  it.  A  word  from  him  would  have  altered  the 
system.  The  word  was  never  said.  There  is  no  possible  subterfuge 
by  which  the  moral  guilt  can  be  deflected  from  the  head  of  the  State, 
the  man  who  went  to  Africa  for  the  freedom  of  commerce  and  the 
regeneration  of  the  native. 


IV 

FIRST  FRUITS  OF  THE  SYSTEM 

THE  first  testimony  which  I  shall  cite  is  that  of  Mr.  Glave, 
which  covers  the  years  1893  ^P  to  his  death  in  1895.  Mr. 
Glave  was  a  young  Englishman,  who  had  been  for  six  years 
in  the  employ  of  the  State,  and  whose  character  and  work  were  highly 
commended  by  Stanley.  Four  years  after  the  expiration  of  his 
engagement  he  travelled  as  an  independent  man  right  across  the 
whole  country,  from  Tanganyika  in  the  east  to  Matadi  near  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  a  distance  of  2,000  miles.  The  agent  and 
rubber  systems  were  still  in  their  infancy,  but  already  he  remarked 
on  every  side  that  violence  and  disregard  of  human  life  which  were  so 
soon  to  grow  to  such  proportions.  Remember  that  he  was  himself  a 
Stanleyman,  a  pioneer  and  a  native  trader,  by  no  means  easy  to 
shock.     Here  are  some  of  his  remarks  as  taken  from  his  diary. 

Dealing  with  the  release  of  slaves  by  the  Belgians,  for  which  so 
much  credit  has  been  claimed,  he  says  {Cent.  Mag.,  Vol.  53) : 

"  They  are  supposed  to  be  taken  out  of  slavery  and  freed,  but  I 
fail  to  see  how  this  can  be  argued  out.  They  are  taken  from  their 
villages  and  shipped  south,  to  be  soldiers,  workers,  etc.,  on  the  State 
stations,  and  what  were  peaceful  families  have  been  broken  up,  and 
the  different  members  spread  about  the  place.  They  have  to  be 
made  fast  and  guarded  for  transportation,  or  they  would  all  run  away. 
This  does  not  look  as  though  the  freedom  promised  had  any  seductive 
prospects.  The  young  children  thus  'liberated'  are  handed  over  to 
the  French  mission  stations,  where  they  receive  the  kindest  care,  but 
nothing  justifies  this  form  of  serfdom.  I  can  understand  the  State 
compelling  natives  to  do  a  certain  amount  of  work  for  a  certain  time; 
but  to  take  people  forcibly  from  their  homes,  and  despatch  them  here 
and  there,  breaking  up  families,  is  not  right.  I  shall  learn  more 
about  this  on  the  way  and  at  Kabambare.  If  these  conditions  are  to 
exist,  I  fail  to  see  how  the  anti-slavery  movement  is  to  benefit  the 
native." 

27 


28  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

With  regard  to  the  use  of  barbarous  soldiers  he  says: 

"State  soldiers  are  also  employed  without  white  officers.  This 
should  not  be  allowed,  for  the  black  soldiers  do  not  understand  the 
reason  of  the  fighting,  and  instead  of  submission  being  sought,  often 
the  natives  are  massacred  or  driven  away  into  the  hill.  .  .  .  But 
the  black  soldiers  are  bent  on  fighting  and  raiding;  they  want  no 
peaceful  settlement.  They  have  good  rifles  and  ammunition,  realize 
their  superiority  over  the  natives  with  their  bows  and  arrows,  and  they 
want  to  shoot  and  kill  and  rob.  Black  delights  to  kill  black,  whether 
the  victim  be  man,  woman,  or  child,  and  no  matter  how  defenceless. 
This  is  no  reasonable  way  of  settling  the  land;  it  is  merely  persecution. 
Blacks  cannot  be  employed  on  such  an  errand  unless  under  the  leader- 
ship of  whites." 

He  met  and  describes  one  Lieutenant  Hambursin,  who  seems 
to  have  been  a  capable  officer : 

"Yesterday  the  natives  in  a  neighbouring  village  came  to  complain 
that  one  of  Hambursin's  soldiers  had  killed  a  villager;  they  brought 
in  the  offender's  gun.  To-day  at  roll-call  the  soldier  appeared  with- 
out his  gun;  his  guilt  was  proved,  and  without  more  to  do,  he  was 
hanged  on  a  tree.  Hambursin  has  hanged  several  for  the  crime  of 
murder." 

Had  there  been  more  Hambursins  there  might  have  been  fewer 
scandals.     Glave  proceeds  to  comment  on  treatment  of  prisoners: 

"In  stations  in  charge  of  white  men.  Government  officers,  one 
sees  strings  of  poor  emaciated  old  women,  some  of  them  mere  skele- 
tons, working  from  six  in  the  morning  till  noon,  and  from  half-past 
two  till  six,  carrying  clay  water-jars,  tramping  about  in  gangs,  with 
a  rope  round  the  neck,  and  connected  by  a  rope  one  and  a  half  yards 
apart.  They  are  prisoners  of  war.  In  war  the  old  women  are  always 
caught,  but  should  receive  a  little  humanity.  They  are  naked,  except 
for  a  miserable  patch  of  cloth  of  several  parts,  held  in  place  by  a 
string  round  the  waist.  They  are  not  loosened  from  the  rope  for  any 
purpose.  They  live  in  the  guard-house  under  the  charge  of  black 
native  sentries,  who  delight  in  slapping  and  ill-using  them,  for  pity  is 
not  in  the  heart  of  the  native.  Some  of  the  women  have  babies,  but 
they  go  to  work  just  the  same.  They  form,  indeed,  a  miserable 
spectacle,  and  pne  wonders  that  old  women,  although  prisoners  of 


FIRST  FRUITS  OF  THE  SYSTEM  29 

war,  should  not  receive  a  little  more  consideration;  at  least,  their 
nakedness  might  be  hidden.  The  men  prisoners  are  treated  in  a  far 
better  way." 

Describing  the  natives  he  says: 

"The  natives  are  not  lazy,  good-for-nothing  fellows.  Their 
fine  powers  are  obtained  by  hard  work,  sobriety  and  frugal  living." 

He  gives  a  glimpse  of  what  the  chicotte  is  like,  the  favourite  and 
universal  instrument  of  torture  used  by  the  agents  and  officers  of  the 
Free  State: 

"The  'chicotte'  of  raw  hippo  hide,  especially  a  new  one,  trimmed 
like  a  corkscrew,  with  edges  like  knife-blades,  and  as  hard  as  wood, 
is  a  terrible  weapon,  and  a  few  blows  bring  blood;  not  more  than 
twenty-five  blows  should  be  given  unless  the  offence  is  very  serious. 
Though  we  persuaded  ourselves  that  the  African's  skin  is  very  tough 
it  needs  an  extraordinary  constitution  to  withstand  the  terrible  punish- 
ment of  one  hundred  blows;  generally  the  victim  is  in  a  state  of 
insensibility  after  twenty-five  or  thirty  blows.  At  the  first  blow  he 
yells  abominably;  then  he  quiets  down,  and  is  a  mere  groaning, 
quivering  body  till  the  operation  is  over,  when  the  culprit  stumbles 
away,  often  with  gashes  which  will  endure  a  lifetime.  It  is  bad  enough 
the  flogging  of  men,  but  far  worse  is  this  punishment  when  inflicted 
on  women  and  children.  Small  boys  of  ten  or  twelve,  with 
excitable,  hot-tempered  masters,  often  are  most  harshly  treated. 
At  Kasnogo  there  is  a  great  deal  of  cruelty  displayed.  I  saw 
two  boys  very  badly  cut.  I  conscientiously  believe  that  a  man  who 
receives  one  hundred  blows  is  often  nearly  killed,  and  has  his 
spirit  broken  for  life." 

He  has  a  glimpse  of  the  treatment  of  the  subjects  of  other  nations: 

"Two  days  before  my  arrival  (at  Wabundu)  two  Sierra  Leoneans 
were  hanged  by  Laschet.  They  were  sentries  on  guard,  and  while 
they  were  asleep  allowed  a  native  chief,  who  was  a  prisoner  and  in 
chains,  to  escape.  Next  morning  Laschet,  in  a  fit  of  rage,  hanged  the 
two  men.  They  were  British  subjects,  engaged  by  the  Congo  Free 
State  as  soldiers.  In  time  of  war,  I  suppose,  they  could  be  executed, 
after  court-martial,  by  being  shot;  but  to  hang  a  subject  of  any  other 
country  without  trial  seems  to  me  outrageouSt" 


30  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

Talking  of  the  general  unrest  he  says : 

"It  is  the  natural  outcome  of  the  harsh,  cruel  policy  of  the  State 
in  wringing  rubber  from  these  people  without  paying  for  it.  The 
revolution  will  extend."  He  adds:  "The  post  (Isangi)  is  close  to  the 
large  settlement  of  an  important  coast  man,  Kayamba,  who  now  is 
devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  State,  catching  slaves  for  them,  and 
stealing  ivory  from  the  natives  of  the  interior.  Does  the  philanthropic 
King  of  the  Belgians  know  about  this?    If  not,  he  ought  to." 

As  he  gets  away  from  the  zone  of  war,  and  into  that  which  should 
represent  peace,  his  comments  become  more  bitter.  The  nascent 
rubber  trade  began  to  intrude  its  methods  upon  his  notice: 

"Formerly  the  natives  were  well  treated,  but  now  expeditions 
have  been  sent  in  every  direction,  forcing  natives  to  make  rubber 
and  to  bring  it  to  the  stations.  Up  the  Ikelemba,  we  are  taking 
down  one  hundred  slaves,  mere  children,  all  taken  in  unholy  wars 
against  the  natives.  ...  It  was  not  necessary  in  the  olden 
times,  when  we  white  men  had  no  force  at  all.  This  forced  commerce 
is  depopulating  the  country.  .  .  .  Left  Equateur  at  eleven 
o'clock  this  morning,  after  taking  on  a  cargo  of  one  hundred  small 
slaves,  principally  boys,  seven  or  eight  years  old,  with  a  few  girls 
among  the  batch,  all  stolen  from  the  natives.  The  Commissary  of  the 
district  is  a  violent-tempered  fellow.  While  arranging  to  take  on  the 
hundred  small  slaves  a  woman  who  had  charge  of  the  youngsters  was 
rather  slow  in  understanding  his  order,  delivered  in  very  poor  Kabanji. 
He  sprang  at  her,  slapped  her  in  the  face,  and  as  she  ran  away, 
kicked  her.  They  talk  of  philanthropy  and  civilization!  Where  it 
is,  I  do  not  know." 

And  again: 

"Most  white  officers  out  on  the  Congo  are  averse  to  the  india- 
rubber  policy  of  the  State,  but  the  laws  command  it.  Therefore, 
at  each  post  one  finds  the  natives  deserting  their  homes,  and  escaping 
to  the  French  side  of  the  river  when  possible." 

As  he  goes  on  his  convictions  grow  stronger: 

"Everywhere,"  he  said,  "I  hear  the  same  news  of  the  doings  of 
the  Congo  Free  State  —  rubber  and  murder,  slavery  in  its  worst 


FIRST  FRUITS  OF  THE  SYSTEM  31 

form.  It  is  said  that  half  the  liber^s  sent  down  die  on  the  road. 
.  .  .  In  Europe  we  understand  from  the  word  liberes  slaves 
saved  from  their  cruel  masters.  Not  at  all!  Most  of  them  result 
from  wars  made  against  the  natives  because  of  ivory  or  rubber." 

On  all  sides  he  sees  evidence  of  the  utter  disregard  of  humanity : 

"  To-day  I  saw  the  dead  body  of  a  carrier  lying  on  the  trail.  There 
could  have  been  no  mistake  about  his  being  a  sick  man;  he  was 
nothing  but  skin  and  bones.  These  posts  ought  to  give  some  care  to 
the  porters ;  the  heartless  disregard  for  life  is  abominable.  .  .  . 
Native  life  is  considered  of  no  value  by  the  Belgians.  No  wonder 
the  State  is  hated." 

Finally,  a  little  before  his  death,  he  heard  of  that  practice  of 
mutilation  which  was  one  of  the  most  marked  fruits  of  the  policy 
of  "moral  and  material  advantage  of  the  native  races"  promised 
at  the  Berlin  Conference : 

"Mr.  Harvey  heard  from  Clarke,  who  is  at  Lake  Mantumba, 
that  the  State  soldiers  have  been  in  the  vicinity  of  his  station  recently 
fighting  and  taking  prisoners ;  and  he  himself  had  seen  several  men 
with  bunches  of  hands  signifying  their  individual  skill.  These,  I 
presume,  they  must  produce  to  prove  their  success!  Among  the 
hands  were  those  of  men  and  women,  and  also  those  of  little  children. 
The  missionaries  are  so  much  at  the  mercy  of  the  State  that  they  do 
not  report  these  barbaric  happenings  to  the  people  at  home.  I  have 
previously  heard  of  hands,  among  them  children's,  being  brought  to 
the  stations,  but  I  was  not  so  satisfied  of  the  truth  of  the  former 
information  as  of  the  reports  received  just  now  by  Mr.  Harvey  from 
Clarke.  Much  of  this  sort  of  thing  is  going  on  at  the  Equateur  Station. 
The  methods  employed  are  not  necessary.  Years  ago,  when  I 
was  on  duty  at  the  Equateur  without  soldiers,  I  never  had  any  dif- 
ficulty in  getting  what  men  I  needed,  nor  did  any  other  station  in  the 
old,  humane  days.  The  stations  and  the  boats  then  had  no  difficulty 
in  finding  men  or  labour,  nor  will  the  Belgians,  if  they  introduce  more 
reasonable  methods." 

A  sentence  which  is  worth  noting  is  that  "The  missionaries  are 
so  much  at  the  mercy  of  the  State  that  they  do  not  report  these  bar- 
baric happenings  to  the  people  at  home."  Far  from  the  question 
being  one,  which,  as  the  apologists  for  King  Leopold  have  contended, 


i 


32  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

has  been  fomented  by  the  missionaries,  it  has  actually  been  held  back 
by  them,  and  it  is  only  the  courage  and  truthfulness  of  a  handful  of 
Englishmen  and  Americans  which  have  finally  brought  it  to  the  front. 

So  much  for  Mr.  Glave's  testimony.  He  was  an  English  traveller. 
Mr.  Murphy,  an  American  missionary,  was  working  in  another  part 
of  the  country,  the  region  where  the  Ubangi  joins  the  Congo,  during 
the  same  years.  Let  us  see  how  far  his  account,  written  entirely  inde- 
pendently (TimeSf  November  i8,  1895),  agrees  with  the  other: 

"I  have  seen  these  things  done,"  he  said,  "and  have  renionstrated 
with  the  State  in  the  years  1888,  1889,  and  1894,  but  never  got  satis- 
faction. I  have  been  in  the  interior  and  have  seen  the  ravages  made 
by  the  State  in  pursuit  of  this  iniquitous  trade.  Let  me  give  an 
incident  to  show  how  this  unrighteous  trade  affects  the  people.  One 
day  a  State  corporal,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  post  of  Solifa,  was 
going  round  the  town  collecting  rubber.  Meeting  a  poor  woman, 
whose  husband  was  away  fishing,  he  asked :  *  Where  is  your  husband  ? ' 
She  answered  by  pointing  to  the  river.  He  then  asked:  'Where  is 
his  rubber?'  She  answered:  'It  is  ready  for  you.'  Whereupon  he 
said :  *  You  lie,'  and  lifting  up  his  gun,  shot  her  dead.  Shortly  after- 
ward the  husband  returned  and  was  told  of  the  murder  of  his  wife. 
He  went  straight  to  the  corporal,  taking  with  him  his  rubber,  and 
asked  why  he  had  shot  his  wife.  The  wretched  man  then  raised  his 
gun  and  killed  the  corporal.  The  soldiers  ran  away  to  the  head- 
quarters of  the  State,  and  made  representations  of  the  case,  with  the 
result  that  the  Commissary  sent  a  large  force  to  support  the  authority 
of  the  soldiers;  the  town  was  looted,  burned,  and  many  people  were 
killed  and  wounded." 

Again: 

"  In  November  last  (1894)  there  was  heavy  fighting  on  the  Bosira, 
because  the  people  refused  to  give  rubber,  and  I  was  told  upon  the 
authority  of  a  State  officer  that  no  less  than  eighteen  hundred  people 
were  killed.  Upon  another  occasion  in  the  same  month  some 
soldiers  ran  away  from  a  State  steamer,  and,  it  was  said,  went  to  the 
town  of  Bombumba.  The  officer  sent  a  message  telling  the  chief  of 
the  town  to  give  them  up.  He  answered  that  he  could  not,  as  the 
fugitives  had  not  been  in  his  town.  The  officer  sent  the  messenger  a 
second  time  with  the  order:   'Come  to  me  at  once,  or  war  in  the 


FIRST  FRUITS  OF  THE  SYSTEM  33 

morning.'  The  next  morning  tlie  old  chief  went  to  meet  the  Belgians, 
and  was  attacked  without  provocation.  He  himself  was  wounded, 
his  wife  was  killed  before  his  eyes,  and  her  head  cut  off  in  order  that 
they  might  possess  the  brass  necklet  that  she  wore.  Twenty-four  of 
the  chief's  people  were  also  killed,  and  all  for  the  paltry  reason 
given  above.  Again  the  people  of  Lake  Mantumba  ran  away  on 
account  of  the  cruelty  of  the  State,  and  the  latter  sent  some  soldiers 
in  charge  of  a  coloured  corporal  to  treat  with  them  and  induce  them 
to  return.  On  the  way  the  troops  met  a  canoe  containing  seven  of 
the  fugitives.  Under  some  paltry  pretext  they  made  the  people  land, 
shot  them,  cut  off  their  hands  and  took  them  to  the  Commissary. 
The  Mantumba  people  complained  to  the  missionary  at  Irebu,  and 
he  went  down  to  see  if  the  story  was  true.  He  ascertained  the  case 
to  be  just  as  they  had  narrated,  and  found  that  one  of  the  seven  was 
a  little  girl,  who  was  not  quite  dead.  The  child  recovered,  and 
she  lives  to-day,  the  stump  of  the  handless  arm  witnessing  against  this 
horrible  practice.  These  are  only  a  few  things  of  many  that  have 
taken  place  in  one  district." 

It  was  not  merely  for  rubber  that  these  horrors  were  done.  Much 
of  the  country  is  unsuited  to  rubber,  and  in  those  parts  there  were 
other  imposts  which  were  collected  with  equal  brutality.  One  village 
had  to  send  food  and  was  remiss  one  day  in  supplying  it: 

"The  people  were  quietly  sleeping  in  their  beds  when  they  heard 
a  shot  fired,  and  ran  out  to  see  what  was  the  matter.  Finding  the 
soldiers  had  surrounded  the  town,  their  only  thought  was  escape. 
As  they  raced  out  of  their  homes,  men,  women  and  children,  they 
were  ruthlessly  shot  down.  Their  town  was  utterly  destroyed,  and 
is  a  ruin  to  this  day.  The  only  reason  for  this  fight  was  that  the 
people  had  failed  to  bring  Kwanga  (food)  to  the  State  upon  that 
one  day." 

Finally  Mr.  Murphy  says:  "The  rubber  question  is  account- 
able for  most  of  the  horrors  perpetrated  in  the  Congo.  It  has  reduced 
the  people  to  a  state  of  utter  despair.  Each  town  in  the  district  is 
forced  to  bring  a  certain  quantity  to  the  headquarters  of  the  Com- 
missary every  Sunday.  It  is  collected  by  force;  the  soldiers  drive 
the  people  into  the  bush;  if  they  will  not  go  they  are  shot  down, 
their  left  hands  being  cut  off  and  taken  as  trophies  to  the  Commissary. 
The  soldiers  do  not  care  whom  they  shoot  down,  and  they  most  often 
shoot  poor,  helpless  women  and  harmless  children.    These  hands 


34  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

—  the  hands  of  men,  women  and  children  —  are  placed  in  rows  before 

the  Commissary,  who  counts  them  to  see  the  soldiers  have  not  wasted 
the  cartridges.  The  Commissary  is  paid  a  commission  of  about  a 
penny  per  pound  upon  all  the  rubber  he  gets;  it  is,  therefore,  to  his 
interest  to  get  as  much  as  he  can." 

Here  is  corroboration  and  amplification  of  all  that  Mr.  Glaves 
had  put  forward.  The  system  had  not  been  long  established,  and 
was  more  efficient  ten  or  twelve  years  later,  but  already  it  was  bearing 
some  notable  first  fruits  of  civilization.  King  Leopold's  rule  cannot 
be  said  to  have  left  the  country  unchanged.  There  is  ample  evidence 
that  mutilations  of  this  sort  were  unknown  among  the  native  savages. 
Knowledge  was  spreading  under  European  rule. 

Having  heard  the  testimony  of  an  English  traveller  and  of  an 
American  missionary,  let  us  now  hear  that  of  a  Swedish  clergyman, 
Mr.  Sjoblom,  as  detailed  in  The  Aborigines^  Friend,  July,  1897.  It 
covers  much  the  same  time  as  the  other  two,  and  is  drawn  from  the 
Equateur  district.    Here  is  the  system  in  full  swing: 

"They  refuse  to  bring  the  rubber.  Then  war  is  declared.  The 
soldiers  are  sent  in  different  directions.  The  people  in  the  towns  are 
attacked,  and  when  they  are  running  away  into  the  forest,  and  try 
to  hide  themselves,  and  save  their  lives,  they  are  found  out  by  the 
soldiers.  Then  their  gardens  of  rice  are  destroyed,  and  their  supplies 
taken.  Their  plantains  are  cut  down  while  they  are  young  and  not 
in  fruit,  and  often  their  huts  are  burned,  and,  of  course,  everything 
of  value  is  taken.  Within  my  own  knowledge  forty-five  villages  were 
altogether  burned  down.  I  say  altogether,  because  there  were  many 
others  partly  burned  down.  I  passed  through  twenty-eight  aban- 
doned villages.  The  natives  had  left  their  places  to  go  further  inland. 
In  order  to  separate  themselves  from  the  white  men  they  go  part  of 
the  way  down  the  river,  or  else  they  cross  the  river  into  French 
territory.  Sometimes,  the  natives  are  obliged  to  pay  a  large  indem- 
nity. The  chiefs  often  have  to  pay  with  brass  wire  and  slaves,  and 
if  the  slaves  do  not  make  up  the  amount  their  wives  are  sold  to  pay. 
I  was  told  that  by  a  Belgian  officer.  I  will  give  you,"  Mr.  Sjoblom 
continues,  "  an  instance  of  a  man  I  saw  shot  right  before  my  eyes.  In 
one  of  my  inland  journeys,  when  I  had  gone  a  little  farther,  perhaps, 
than  the  Commissary  expected  me  to  go,  I  saw  something  that 
perhaps  he  would  not  have  liked  me  to  see.  It  was  at  a  town  called 
Ibera,  one  of  the  cannibal  towns  to  which  no  white  man  had  ever 


FIRST  FRUITS  OF  THE  SYSTEM  3$ 

been  before.  I  reached  it  at  sunset,  after  the  natives  had  returned 
from  the  various  places  in  which  they  had  been  looking  for  india- 
rubber.  They  gathered  together  in  a  great  crowd,  being  curious  to 
see  a  white  man.  Besides,  they  had  heard  I  had  some  good  news  to 
tell  them,  which  came  through  the  Gospel.  When  that  large  crowd 
gathered,  and  I  was  just  ready  to  preach,  the  sentinels  rushed  in 
among  them  to  seize  an  old  man.  They  dragged  him  aside  a  little 
from  the  crowd,  and  the  sentinel  in  charge  came  to  me  and  said, '  I 
want  to  shoot  this  man,  because  he  has  been  in  the  river  fishing  to-day. 
He  has  not  been  on  the  river  for  india-rubber.'  I  told  him:  *  I  have 
not  authority  to  stop  you,  because  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  these 
palavers,  but  the  people  are  here  to  hear  what  I  have  to  say  to  them, 
and  I  don't  want  you  to  do  it  before  my  eyes.'  He  said:  '  AH  right,  I 
will  keep  him  in  bonds,  then,  until  to-morrow  morning  when  you  have 
gone.  Then  I  will  kill  him.'  But  a  few  minutes  afterward  the 
sentinel  came  in  a  rage  to  the  man  and  shot  him  right  before  my 
eyes.  Then  he  charged  his  rifle  again  and  pointed  it  at  the  others, 
who  all  rushed  away  like  chaff  before  the  wind.  He  told  a  little  boy, 
eight  or  nine  years  of  age,  to  go  and  cut  off  the  right  hand  of  the 
man  who  had  been  shot.  The  man  was  not  quite  dead,  and  when  he 
felt  the  knife  he  tried  to  drag  his  hand  away.  The  boy,  after  some 
labour,  cut  the  hand  off  and  laid  it  by  a  fallen  tree.  A  little  later 
this  hand  was  put  on  a  fire  to  smoke  before  being  sent  to  the  Com- 
missary." 

Here  we  get  the  system  at  its  highest.  I  think  that  picture  of  the 
child  hacking  off  the  hand  of  the  dying  man  at  the  order  of  the  monster 
who  would  have  assuredly  murdered  him  also  had  he  hesitated  to 
obey,  is  as  diabolical  a  one  as  even  the  Congo  could  show.  A  pretty 
commentary  upon  the  doctrine  of  Christ  which  the  missionary  was 
there  to  preach! 

Mr.  Sjoblom  seems  to  have  been  unable  to  believe  at  first  that  such 
deeds  were  done  with  the  knowledge  and  approval  of  the  whites.  He 
ventured  to  appeal  to  the  Commissary.  "  He  turned  in  anger  on  me," 
he  adds,  "  and  in  the  presence  of  the  soldiers  said  that  he  would  expel 
me  from  the  town  if  I  meddled  with  matters  of  that  kind  any  more." 

It  would,  indeed,  have  been  rather  absurd  for  the  Commissary 
to  interfere  when  the  severed  hand  had  actually  been  cut  off  in  order 
to  be  presented  to  him.  The  whole  procedure  is  explained  in  the 
following  paragraph: 


36  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

"  If  the  rubber  does  not  reach  the  full  amount  required,  the  sentinels 
attack  the  natives.  They  kill  some  and  bring  the  hands  to  the  Com- 
missary. Others  are  brought  to  the  Commissary  as  prisoners.  At 
the  beginning  they  came  with  their  smoked  hands.  The  sentinels, 
or  else  the  boys  in  attendance  on  them,  put  these  hands  on  a  little  kiln, 
and  after  they  had  been  smoked,  they  by  and  by  put  them  on  the  top 
of  the  rubber  baskets.     I  have  on  many  occasions  seen  this  done." 

Then  we  read  in  the  latest  State  papers  of  the  Belgian  diplo- 
matists that  they  propose  to  continue  the  beneficent  and  civilizing 
work  which  they  have  inherited. 

Yet  another  paragraph  from  Mr.  Sjoblom  showing  the  complicity 
of  the  Belgian  authorities,  and  showing  also  that  the  presence  of  the 
missionaries  was  some  deterrent  against  open  brutality.  If,  then, 
they  saw  as  much  as  they  did,  what  must  have  been  the  condition 
of  those  huge  tracts  of  country  where  no  missions  existed  ? 

"At  the  end  of  1895,  the  Commissary  —  all  the  people  were  gather- 
ing the  rubber  —  said  he  had  often  told  the  sentinels  not  to  kill  the 
people.  But  on  the  14th  of  December  a  sentinel  passed  our  mission 
station  and  a  woman  accompanied  him,  carrying  a  basket  of  hands. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Banks,  besides  myself, went  down  the  road,  and  they  told 
the  sentinel  to  put  the  hands  on  the  road  that  they  might  count  them. 
We  counted  eighteen  right  hands  smoked  and  from  the  size  of  the 
hands  we  could  judge  that  they  belonged  to  men,  women  and  children. 
We  could  not  understand  why  these  hands  had  been  collected,  as  the 
Commissary  had  given  orders  that  no  more  natives  were  to  be  killed 
for  their  hands.  On  my  last  journey  I  discovered  the  secret.  One 
Monday  night,  a  sentinel  who  had  just  returned  from  the  Commissary, 
said  to  me :  *  What  are  the  sentinels  to  do  ?  When  all  the  people  are 
gathered  together,  the  Commissary  openly  tells  us  not  to  kill  any  more 
people,  but  when  the  people  have  gone  he  tells  us  privately  that  if 
they  do  not  bring  plenty  of  india-rubber  we  must  kill  some,  but  not 
bring  the  hands  to  him.'  Some  sentinels,  he  told  me,  had  been  put 
in  chains  because  they  killed  some  natives  who  happened  to  be  near  a 
mission  station ;  but  it  was  only  because  he  thought  it  might  become 
known  that  the  Commissary,  to  justify  himself,  had  put  the  men  in 
chains.  I  said  to  the  sentinel:  'You  should  obey  the  first  command, 
never  to  kill  any  more.'  'The  people,'  he  answered,  'unless  they  are 
frightened,  do  not  bring  in  the  rubber,  and  then  the  Commissary 
flogs  us  with  the  hippopotamus  hide,  or  else  he  puts  us  in  chains,  or 


FIRST  FRUITS  OF  THE  SYSTEM  37 

sends  us  to  Boma.'  The  sentinel  added  that  the  Commissary 
induced  him  to  hide  cruelty  while  letting  it  go  on,  and  to  do  this  in 
such  a  way  that  he  might  be  justified,  in  case  it  should  become  known 
and  an  investigation  should  be  made.  In  such  a  case  the  Com- 
missary could  say,  '  Why,  I  told  him  openly  not  to  kill  any  more'  and 
he  might  put  the  blame  on  the  soldier  to  justify  himself,  though  the 
blame  and  the  punishment  in  all  its  force  ought  to  have  been  put  on 
himself,  after  he  had  done  such  a  terrible  act  in  order  to  disguise  or 
mislead  justice.  If  the  sentinels  were  puzzled  about  this  message, 
what  would  the  natives  be?" 

I  have  said  that  there  was  more  to  be  said  for  the  cannibal  murderers 
than  for  those  who  worked  the  system.  The  capitas  pleaded  the  same 
excuse.  "  Don't  take  this  to  heart  so  much,"  said  one  of  them  to  the 
missionary.  "They  kill  us  if  we  do  not  bring  rubber.  The  Com- 
missary has  promised  us  if  we  bring  plenty  of  hands  he  will  shorten 
our  service.  I  have  brought  plenty  already,  and  I  expect  my  time 
will  soon  be  finished." 

That  the  Commissaries  are  steeped  to  the  lips  in  this  horrible 
business  has  been  amply  shown  in  these  paragraphs.  But  Mr. 
Sjoblom  was  able  to  go  one  stage  further  along  the  line  which  leads 
to  the  Palace  at  Brussels.  M.  Wahis,  the  Governor-General,  a  man 
who  has  played  a  sinister  part  in  the  country,  came  up  the  river  and 
endeavoured  to  get  the  outspoken  Swede  to  contradict  himself,  or, 
failing  that,  to  intimidate  him.  To  get  at  the  truth  or  to  right  the 
wrong  seems  to  have  been  the  last  thing  in  his  mind,  for  he  knew  well 
that  the  wrong  was  essential  to  the  system,  and  that  without  it  the 
wheels  would  move  more  slowly  and  the  head  engineer  in  Europe 
would  soon  wish  to  know  what  was  amiss  with  his  rubber-producing 
machine.  "  You  may  have  seen  all  these  things  that  you  have  stated," 
said  he,  "but  nothing  is  proved."  The  Commissary  meanwhile 
had  been  holding  a  rifle  to  the  head  of  witnesses  so  as  to  make  sure 
that  nothing  would  be  proved.  In  spite  of  this  Mr.  Sjoblom  managed 
to  collect  his  evidence,  and  going  to  the  Governor,  asked  him  when  he 
could  hsten  to  it.  "I  don't  want  to  hear  any  witnesses,"  said  he,  and 
then:  "If  you  continue  to  demand  investigation  in  these  matters  we 
will  make  a  charge  against  you.  .  .  .  That  means  five  years' 
imprisonment." 

Such  is  Mr  Sjoblom's  narrative  involving  Governor  Wahis  in  the 
general  infamy.     "It  is  not  true,"  cries  the  Congolese  apologist. 


38  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

Strange  how  Swedes,  Americans,  and  British,  laymen  and  clergy, 
all  unite  in  defaming  this  innocent  State!  No  doubt  the  wicked  chil- 
dren lop  off  their  own  hands  in  order  to  cast  a  slur  upon  "the  benevo- 
lent and  philanthropic  enterprise  of  the  Congo."  TartufTe  and  Jack 
the  Ripper  —  was  ever  such  a  combination  in  the  history  of  the  world ! 
One  more  anecdote  of  Mr.  Wahis,  for  it  is  not  often  that  we  can 
get  a  Governor  of  the  Congo  in  person  face  to  face  with  the  results 
of  his  own  work.  As  he  passed  down  the  river,  Mr.  Sjoblom  was 
able  to  report  another  outrage  to  him : 

"  Mr.  Banks  told  the  Governor  that  he  had  seen  it  himself,  where- 
upon M.  Wahis  summoned  the  commandant  in  charge  —  the  officer 
who  had  ordered  the  raid  had  already  gone  elsewhere  —  and  asked 
him  in  French  if  the  story  were  true.  The  Belgian  officer  assured 
M.  Wahis  that  it  was,  but  the  latter,  thinking  Mr.  Banks  did  not 
understand  French,  said :  *  After  all,  you  may  have  seen  this ;  but  you 
have  no  witnesses.'  *  Oh,'  said  Mr.  Banks, '  I  can  call  the  command- 
ant, who  has  just  told  you  that  it  is  true.'  M.  Wahis  then  tried  to 
minimize  the  matter,  when,  to  his  great  surprise,  Mr.  Banks  added : 
*In  any  case  I  have,  at  his  own  request,  furnished  to  the  British 
Consul,  who  passed  through  here  lately,  a  signed  statement  concerning 
it.'  M.  Wahis  rose  from  his  chair,  saying:  'Oh,  then,  it  is  all  over 
Europe!'  Then  for  the  first  time  he  said  that  the  responsible  Com- 
missary must  be  punished." 

It  need  not  be  added  that  the  punishment  was  the  merest  farce. 

These  successive  reports,  each  amplifying  the  other,  coming  on  the 
top  of  the  killing  of  Mr.  Stokes,  and  the  action  of  the  British  Colonial 
Office  in  prohibiting  recruiting  for  Congoland,  had  the  efifect  of  calling 
strong  attention  to  the  condition  of  that  country.  The  charges  were 
met  partly  by  denial,  partly  by  general  phrases  about  morality,  and 
partly  by  bogus  reform.  M.  van  Eetvelde,  in  Brussels,  and  M.  Jules 
Houdret,  in  London,  denied  things  which  have  since  been  proved  up 
to  the  hilt.  The  reform  took  the  shape  of  a  so-called  Natives'  Pro- 
tection Commission.  Like  all  these  so-called  reforms,  it  was  utterly 
ineffectual,  and  was  only  meant  for  European  consumption.  No  one 
knew  so  well  as  the  men  at  Brussels  that  no  possible  reform  could  have 
any  effect  whatever  unless  the  system  was  itself  abolished,  for  that 
system  produced  outrages  as  logically  and  certainly  as  frost  produces 
ice.  The  sequel  will  show  the  results  of  the  Natives'  Protection 
Commission. 


V 

FURTHER  FRUITS  OF  THE  SYSTEM 

FOR  a  moment  I  must  interrupt  the  narrative  of  the  long,  dismal 
succession  of  atrocities  in  order  to  explain  certain  new  factors 
in  the  situation. 

It  has  already  been  shown  that  the  Congo  State,  unable  to  handle 
the  whole  of  its  vast  domain,  had  sublet  large  tracts  of  it  to  monopolist 
companies,  in  absolute  contradiction  to  Article  V.  of  the  Berlin  Treaty. 
Up  to  the  year  1897,  these  companies  were  registered  in  Belgium, 
and  had  some  pretence  to  being  international  in  scope.  The  State 
had  no  open  or  direct  control  over  them.  This  was  now  altered.  The 
State  drew  closer  the  bonds  which  united  it  to  these  commercial  under- 
takings. They  were,  for  the  most  part,  dissolved,  and  then  recon- 
structed under  Congo  law.  In  most  cases,  in  return  for  the  monopoly, 
the  State  was  given  control,  sometimes  to  the  extent  of  appointing 
all  managers  and  agents.  Half  the  shares  of  the  company  or  half  the 
profits  were  usually  made  over  to  the  State.  Thus  one  must  bear  in 
mind  in  future  that  whether  one  talks  of  the  Abir  Company,  of  the 
Kasai,  the  Katanga,  the  Anversoise,  or  any  other,  it  is  really  with  the 
State  —  that  is,  with  King  Leopold  —  that  one  has  to  do.  He  owned 
the  companies,  but  paid  them  fifty  per  cent,  commission  for  doing  all 
the  work.  As  their  profits  were  such  as  might  be  expected  where 
nothing  was  paid  either  for  produce  or  for  labour  (varying  from  fifty 
to  seven  hundred  per  cent,  per  annum),  all  parties  to  the  bargain 
were  the  gainers. 

Another  new  factor  in  the  situation  was  the  completion,  in  1898, 
of  the  Lower  Congo  Railway,  which  connects  Boma  with  Stanley 
Pool,  and  so  outflanks  the  cataracts.  The  enterprise  itself  was 
beneficent  and  splendid.  The  means  by  which  it  was  carried  out  were 
unscrupulous  and  inhuman.  Had  civilization  no  complaint  against 
the  Congo  State  save  the  history  of  its  railway  construction  with  its 
forced  labour,  so  different  to  the  tradition  of  the  tropical  procedure 
of  other  European  colonies,  it  would  be  a  heavy  indictment.    Now 

39 


40  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

it  sinks  to  insignificance  when  compared  with  the  enslavement  of  a 
whole  people  and  the  twenty  years  of  uninterrupted  massacre.  As  a 
sketch  of  the  condition  of  the  railway  district  here  is  a  little  pen  picture 
by  M.  Edouard  Picard,  of  the  Belgian  Senate,  who  saw  it  in  the 
building: 

"The  cruel  impression  conveyed  by  the  mutilated  forests,"  he  wrote, 
"is  heightened  in  the  places  where,  till  lately,  native  villages  nestled, 
hidden  and  protected  by  thick  and  lofty  foliage.  The  inhabitants 
have  fled.  They  have  fled  in  spite  of  encouraging  palavers  and 
promises  of  peace  and  kind  treatment.  They  have  burnt  their  huts, 
and  great  heaps  of  cinders  mark  the  sites,  amid  deserted  palm-groves 
and  trampled-down  banana  fields.  The  terrors  caused  by  the  memory 
of  inhuman  floggings,  of  massacres,  of  rapes  and  abductions,  haunt 
their  poor  brains,  and  they  go  as  fugitives  to  seek  shelter  in  the  recesses 
of  the  hospitable  bush,  or,  across  the  frontiers,  to  find  it  in  French 
or  Portuguese  Congo,  not  yet  afflicted  with  so  many  labours  and 
alarms,  far  from  the  roads  traversed  by  white  men,  those  baneful 
intruders,  and  their  train  of  strange  and  disquieting  habits."  The 
outlook  was  as  gloomy  when  he  wandered  along  the  path  trodden  by 
the  caravans  to  the  Pool  and  back  again.  "We  are  constantly  meet- 
ing these  carriers,  either  isolated  or  in  Indian  file;  blacks,  blacks, 
miserable  blacks,  with  horribly  filthy  loin-clothes  for  their  only  gar- 
ments ;  their  bare  and  frizzled  heads  supporting  their  loads  —  chest, 
bale,  ivory- tusk,  hamper  of  rubber,  or  barrel;  for  the  most  part  broken 
down,  sinking  under  the  burdens  made  heavier  by  their  weariness  and 
insufficiency  of  food,  consisting  of  a  handful  of  rice  and  tainted  dried 
fish ;  pitiful  walking  caryatids ;  beasts  of  burden  with  the  lank  limbs 
of  monkeys,  pinched-up  features,  eyes  fixed  and  round  with  the 
strain  of  keeping  their  balance  and  the  dulness  of  exhaustion.  Thus 
they  come  and  go  by  thousands,  organized  in  a  system  of  human  trans- 
port, requisitioned  by  the  State  armed  with  its  irresistible  force  pub- 
lique,  supplied  by  the  chiefs  whose  slaves  they  are  and  who  pounce 
on  their  wages;  jogging  on,  with  knees  bent  and  stomach  protruding, 
one  arm  raised  up  and  the  other  resting  on  a  long  stick,  dusty  and 
malodorous ;  covered  with  insects  as  their  huge  procession  passes  over 
mountains  and  through  valleys;  dying  on  the  tramp,  or,  when  the 
tramp  is  over,  going  to  their  villages  to  die  of  exhaustion." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Captain  Lothaire,  having  been  acquitted 
of  the  murder  of  Mr.  Stokes,  was  sent  out  by  King  Leopold  to  act  as 


FURTHER  FRUITS  OF  THE  SYSTEM  41 

managing-director  of  the  Anversoise  Trust.  In  1898,  he  arrived  in  the 
Mongalla  District,  and  from  then  onward  there  came  to  Europe 
vague  rumours  of  native  attacks  and  bloody  reprisals,  with  those  other 
symptoms  of  violence  and  unrest  which  might  be  expected  where  a 
large  population  accustomed  to  freedom  is  suddenly  reduced  to 
slavery.  How  huge  were  the  rubber  operations  which  were  carried 
through  under  the  ferocious  rule  of  Captain  Lothaire,  may  be  guessed 
from  the  fact  that  the  profits  of  the  company,  which  had  been  1 20,000 
francs  in  1897,  rose  to  3,968,000  in  1899  —  a  sum  which  is  con- 
siderably more  than  twice  the  total  capital.  M.  Mille  tells  of  a 
Belgian  agent  who  showed  25,000  cartridges  and  remarked,  "I 
can  turn  those  into  25,000  pounds  of  rubber."  Captain  Lothaire 
believed  in  the  same  trade  methods,  for  his  fighting  and  his 
output  increased  together.  It  is  worth  while  to  slaughter  one- 
fourth  of  the  population  if  the  effect  is  to  drive  the  others  to 
frenzied  and  unceasing  work. 

No  definite  details  might  ever  have  reached  Europe  of  those  doings 
had  not  Lothaire  made  the  capital  mistake  of  quarrelling  with  his 
subordinates.  One  of  these,  named  Lacroix,  sent  a  communication 
to  the  Nieuw  Gazet,  of  Antwerp,  which,  with  the  Petit  Bleu,  acted 
an  honourable  and  independent  part  at  this  epoch.  The  Congo 
Press  Bureau,  which  has  stifled  the  voice  of  the  more  venal  portion 
of  the  Belgian  and  Parisian  Press,  had  not  at  that  time  attained  the 
efficiency  which  it  afterward  reached.  This  letter  from  Lacroix 
was  published  on  April  loth,  1900,  and  shed  a  lurid  light  upon  what 
had  been  going  on  in  the  Mongalla  District.  It  was  a  confession,  but 
a  confession  which  involved  his  superiors  as  well  as  himself.  He 
told  how  he  had  been  instructed  by  his  chief  to  massacre  all  the 
natives  of  a  certain  village  which  had  been  slow  in  bringing  its  rubber. 
He  had  carried  out  the  order.  Later,  his  chief  had  put  sixty  women 
in  irons,  and  allowed  nearly  all  of  them  to  die  of  hunger  because  the 
village  —  Mummumbula  —  had  not  brought  enough  rubber.  "I 
am  going  to  be  tried,"  he  wrote,  *'for  having  murdered  one  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  for  having  crucified  women  and  children,  and  for  hav- 
ing mutilated  many  men  and  hung  the  remains  on  the  village  fence." 
At  the  same  moment  as  this  confession  of  Lacroix,  Le  Petit  Bleu  pub- 
lished sworn  affidavits  of  soldiers  employed  by  the  Trust,  teUing  how 
they  had  put  to  death  whole  villages  for  being  short  with  their  rubber. 
Moray,  another  agent,  published  a  confession  in  Le  Petit  Bleu,  from 
which  this  is  an  extract; 


42  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

"At  Ambas  we  were  a  party  of  thirty,  under  Van  Eycken,  who 
sent  us  into  a  village  to  ascertain  if  the  natives  were  collecting  rubber, 
and  in  the  contrary  case  to  murder  all,  including  men,  women  and 
children.  We  found  the  natives  sitting  peaceably.  We  asked  them 
what  they  were  doing.  They  were  unable  to  reply,  thereupon  we 
feU  upon  them  all,  and  killed  them  without  mercy.  An  hour  later  we 
were  joined  by  Van  Eycken,  and  told  him  what  had  been  done.  He 
answered:  'It  is  well,  but  you  have  not  done  enough!'  Thereupon 
he  ordered  us  to  cut  o&  the  heads  of  the  men  and  hang  them  on 
the  village  palisades,  also  their  sexual  members,  and  to  hang  the 
women  and  children  on  the  palisades  in  the  form  of  a  cross." 

In  the  face  of  these  fresh  revelations  there  was  an  outburst  of  feeling 
in  Belgium,  showing  that  it  is  only  their  ignorance  of  the  true  facts 
which  prevents  the  inhabitants  of  that  country  from  showing  the  same 
humanity  as  any  other  civilized  nation  would  do.  They  have  not 
yet  realized  the  foul  things  which  have  been  done  in  their  name. 
Surely  when  they  do  realize  it  there  will  be  a  terrible  reckoning! 
Some  were  already  very  alive  to  the  question.  MM.  Vandervelde 
and  Lorand  fought  bravely  in  the  Chamber.  The  officials,  with  MM. 
Liebrichts  and  De  Cuvelier  at  their  head,  made  the  usual  vague  profes- 
sions and  general  denials.  "Ah,  you  can  rest  assured  light  will  be 
forthcoming,  complete,  striking ! "  cried  the  former.  Light  was  indeed 
forthcoming,  though  not  so  complete  as  might  be  wished,  for  some, 
at  least,  of  the  scoundrels  implicated  were  tried  and  condemned. 
In  any  other  European  colony  they  would  have  been  hanged  offhand, 
as  the  villainous  murderers  that  they  were.  But  they  do  not  hang 
white  men  in  the  Congoland,  even  with  the  blood  of  a  hundred  mur- 
ders on  their  hands.  The  only  white  man  ever  hanged  there  was 
the  Englishman  Stokes  for  competing  in  trade. 

What  is  to  be  remarked,  however,  is  that  only  subordinates  were 
punished.  Van  Eycken  was  acquitted;  Lacroix  had  imprisonment; 
Mattheys,  another  agent  accused  of  horrible  practices,  got  twelve 
years  —  which  sounded  well  at  the  time,  but  he  was  liberated  at  the 
end  of  three.  In  the  sentence  upon  this  man  the  Judge  used  the 
words,  "  Seeing  that  it  is  just  to  take  into  account  the  example  which 
his  superiors  gave  him  in  showing  no  respect  for  the  lives  or  rights  of 
the  natives."  Brave  words,  but  how  helpless  is  justice  when  such 
words  can  be  said,  and  no  result  follow!  They  referred,  of  course,  to 
Captain  Lothaire,  who  had,  in  the  meanwhile,  fled  aboard  a  steamer 


FURTHER  FRUITS  OF  THE  SYSTEM  43 

at  Matadi,  and  made  his  escape  to  Europe.  His  flight  was  common 
knowledge,  but  who  would  dare  to  lay  his  hand  upon  the  favourite 
of  the  King.  Lothaire  has  had  occasion  several  times  since  to  visit 
the  Congo,  but  Justice  has  indeed  sat  with  bandaged  eyes  where  that 
man  was  concerned! 

There  is  one  incident  which  should  be  marked  in  the  story  of  this 
trial.  Moray,  whose  testimony  would  have  been  of  great  importance, 
was  found  dead  in  his  bed  just  before  the  proceedings.  There  have 
been  several  such  happenings  in  Congo  history.  Commandant 
Dooms,  having  threatened  to  expose  the  misdeeds  of  Lieutenant 
Massard  before  Europe,  was  shortly  afterward  declared  to  have 
been  mysteriously  drowned  by  a  hippopotamus.  Dr.  Barotti, 
returning  hot  with  anger  after  an  inspection  of  the  State,  declares 
vehemently  that  he  was  poisoned.  There  is  much  that  is  of  the 
sixteenth  century  in  this  State,  besides  its  views  of  its  duties  to  the 
natives. 

Before  passing  these  revelations  with  the  attendant  burst  of  can- 
dour in  the  Belgian  Press,  it  may  be  well  to  transcribe  the  following 
remark  in  an  interview  from  a  returned  Congo  official  which  appeared 
in  the  Antwerp  Nieuw  Gazet  (April  loth,  1900).     He  says: 

"When  first  commissioned  to  establish  a  fort,  I  was  given  some 
native  soldiers  and  a  prodigious  stock  of  ammunition.  My  chief  gave 
me  the  following  instructions:  'Crush  every  obstacle!'  I  obeyed, 
and  cut  through  my  district  by  fire  and  sword.  I  had  left  Antwerp 
thinking  I  was  simply  to  gather  rubber.  Great  was  my  stupefaction 
when  the  truth  dawned  on  me." 

This,  with  the  letter  of  Lieutenant  Tilken,  as  quoted  before,  gives 
some  insight  into  the  position  of  the  agent. 

Indeed,  there  is  something  to  be  said  for  these  imfortunate  men, 
for  it  is  a  more  awful  thing  to  be  driven  to  crime  than  to  endure  it. 
Consider  the  sequence  of  events!  The  man  sees  an  advertisement 
offering  a  commercial  situation  in  the  tropics.  He  applies  to  a  bureau. 
He  is  told  that  the  salary  is  some  seventy-five  pounds  a  year,  with  a 
bonus  on  results.  He  knows  nothing  of  the  country  or  conditions. 
He  accepts.  He  is  then  asked  if  he  has  any  money.  He  has  not. 
One  hundred  pounds  is  advanced  to  him  for  expenses  and  outfit,  and 
he  is  pledged  to  work  it  off.  He  goes  out  and  finds  the  terrible  nature 
of  the  task  before  him.  He  must  condone  crime  to  get  his  results. 
Suppose  he    resigns?     "Certainly,"    say    the    authorities;    "but 


44  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

you  must  remain  there  until  you  have  worked  off  your  debt!"  He 
cannot  possibly  get  down  the  river,  for  the  steamers  are  all  under 
Government  control.  What  can  he  do  then?  There  is  one  thing 
which  he  very  frequently  does,  and  that  is  to  blow  out  his  brains. 
The  statistics  of  suicide  are  higher  than  in  any  service  in  the  world. 
But  suppose  he  takes  the  line:  "Very  well,  I  will  stay  if  you  make 
me  do  so,  but  I  will  expose  these  misdeeds  to  Europe."  What  then  ? 
The  routine  is  a  simple  one.  An  official  charge  is  preferred  against 
him  of  ill-treating  the  natives.  Ill-treating  of  some  sort  is  always 
going  forward,  and  there  is  no  difficulty  with  the  help  of  the  sentries 
in  proving  that  something  for  which  the  agent  is  responsible  does  not 
tally  with  the  written  law,  however  much  it  might  be  the  recognized 
custom.  He  is  taken  to  Boma,  tried  and  condemned.  Thus  it  comes 
about  that  the  prison  of  Boma  may  at  the  same  time  contain  the  best 
men  and  the  worst  —  the  men  whose  ideas  were  too  humane  for  the 
authorities  as  well  as  those  whose  crimes  could  not  be  overlooked  even 
by  a  Congolese  administration.  Take  warning,  you  who  seek  service 
in  this  dark  country,  for  suicide,  the  Boma  prison,  or  such  deeds  as 
will  poison  your  memory  forever  are  the  only  choice  which  will  lie 
before  you. 

Here  is  the  sort  of  official  circular  which  descends  in  its  thousands 
upon  the  agent.  This  particular  one  was  from  the  Commissioner  in 
the  Wille  district: 

"  I  give  you  carte  blanche  to  procure  4,000  kilos  of  rubber  a  month. 
You  have  two  months  in  which  to  work  your  people.  Employ  gentle- 
ness at  first,  and  if  they  persist  in  resisting  the  demands  of  the  State, 
employ  force  of  arms." 

And  this  State  was  formed  for  the  "moral  and  material  advantage 
of  the  native." 

While  dealing  with  trials  of  Boma  I  will  give  some  short  account 
of  the  Caudron  case,  which  occurred  in  1904.  This  case  was  remark- 
able as  establishing  judicially  what  was  always  clear  enough:  the 
complicity  between  the  State  and  the  criminal.  Caudron  was  a 
man  against  whom  120  cold-blooded  murders  were  charged.  He 
was,  in  fact,  a  zealous  and  efficient  agent  of  the  Anversoise  Society, 
that  same  company  whose  red-edged  securities  rose  to  such  a  height 
when  Manager  Lothaire  taught  the  natives  what  a  minister  in  the 
Belgian  House  described  as  the  Christian  law  of  work.  He  did  his 
best  for  the  company,  and  he  did  his  best  for  himself,  for  he  had  a  three 


FURTHER  FRUITS  OF  THE  SYSTEM  45 

per  cent,  commission  upon  the  rubber.  Why  he  should  be  chosen 
among  all  his  fellow-murderers  is  hard  to  explain,  but  it  was  so,  and 
he  found  himself  at  Boma  with  a  sentence  of  twenty  years.  On 
appealing,  this  was  reduced  to  fifteen  years,  which  experience  has 
shown  to  mean  in  practice  two  or  three.  The  interesting  point  of  his 
trial,  however,  is  that  his  appeal,  and  the  consequent  decrease  of 
sentence  which  justified  that  appeal,  were  based  upon  the  claim  that 
the  Government  was  cognisant  of  the  murderous  raids,  and  that  the 
Government  soldiers  were  used  to  effect  them.  The  points  brought 
out  by  the  trial  were: 

1.  The  existence  of  a  system  of  organized  oppression,  plunder* 
and  massacre,  in  order  to  increase  the  output  of  india-rubber  for 
the  benefit  of  a  "company,"  which  is  only  a  covering  name  for  the 
Government  itself. 

2.  That  the  local  authorities  of  the  Government  are  cognisant, 
and  participatory  in  this  system. 

3.  That  local  officials  of  the  Government  engage  in  these 
rubber  raids,  and  that  Government  troops  are  regularly  employed 
there  on. 

4.  That  the  Judicature  is  powerless  to  place  the  real  respon- 
sibility on  the  proper  shoulders. 

5.  That,  consequently,  these  atrocities  will  continue  until  the 
system  itself  is  extirpated. 

Caudron's  counsel  called  for  the  production  of  official  documents 
to  show  how  the  chain  of  responsibility  went,  but  the  President  of 
the  Appeal  Court  refused  it,  knowing  as  clearly  as  we  do,  that  it 
could  only  conduct  to  the  Throne  itself. 

One  might  ask  how  the  details  of  this  trial  came  to  Europe  when 
it  is  so  seldom  that  anything  leaks  out  from  the  Courts  of  Boma. 
The  reason  was  that  there  lived  in  Boma  a  British  coloured  subject 
named  Shanir,  who  was  at  the  pains  to  attend  the  court  day  by  day 
in  order  to  preserve  some  record  of  the  procedure.  This  he  dispatched 
to  Europe.  The  sequel  is  interesting.  The  man's  trade,  which  was 
a  very  large  one,  was  boycotted,  he  lost  his  all,  brooded  over  his 
misfortunes,  and  finally  took  his  own  life  —  another  martyr  in  the 
cause  of  the  Congo. 


VI 

VOICES  FROM  THE  DARKNESS 

I  WILL  now  return  to  the  witnesses  of  the  shocking  treatment  of 
the  natives.     Rev.  Joseph  Clark  was  an  American  missionary 
living  at  Ikoko  in  the  Crown  Domain,  which  is  King  Leopold's 
own  special  private  preserve.    These  letters  cover  the  space  between 
1893  and  1899. 
This  is  Ikoko  as  he  found  it  in  1893: 

"Irebo  contains  say  2,000  people.  Ikoko  has  at  least  4,000 
and  there  are  other  towns  within  easy  reach,  several  as  large  as  Irebo, 
and  two  probably  as  large  as  Ikoko.  The  people  are  fine-looking, 
bold  and  active." 

In  1903  there  were  600  people  surviving. 

In  1894  Ikoko  in  the  Crown  Domain  began  to  feel  the  effects  of 
"moral  and  material  regeneration."  On  May  30th  of  that  year 
Mr.  Clark  writes: 

"Owing  to  trouble  with  the  State  the  Irebo  people  fled  and  left 
their  homes.  Yesterday  the  State  soldiers  shot  a  sick  man  who  had 
not  attempted  to  run  away,  and  others  have  been  killed  by  the  State 
(native)  soldiers,  who,  in  the  absence  of  a  white  man,  do  as  they 
please." 

In  November,  1894: 

"At  Ikoko  quite  a  number  of  people  have  been  killed  by  the 
soldiers,  and  most  of  the  others  are  living  in  the  bush." 

In  the  same  month  he  complained  officially  to  Commissaire  Fievez: 

"If  you  do  not  come  soon  and  stop  the  present  trouble  the  towns 
will  be  empty.  ...  I  entreat  you  to  help  us  to  have  peace  on 
the  Lake.  ...  It  seems  so  hard  to  see  the  dead  bodies  in  the 
creek  and  on  the  beach,  and  to  know  why  they  are  killed.  .  .  . 
People  are  living  in  the  bush  like  wild  iDeasts  without  shelter  or 
proper  food,  and  afraid  to  make  fires.    Many  died  in  this  way.     One 

46 


VOICES  FROM  THE  DARKNESS  47 

woman  ran  away  with  three  children  —  they  all  died  in  the  forest, 
and  the  woman  herself  came  back  a  wreck  and  died  before  long  — 
ruined  by  exposure  and  starvation.  We  knew  her  well.  My  hope 
in  1894  was  to  get  the  facts  put  before  King  Leopold,  as  I  was  sure 
he  knew  nothing  of  the  awful  conditions  of  the  collection  of  the  so- 
called  'rubber  tax.'  " 

On  November  28th  he  writes: 

"The  State  soldiers  brought  in  seven  hands,  and  reported  having 
shot  the  people  in  the  act  of  running  away  to  the  French  side,  etc." 

"We  found  all  that  the  soldiers  had  reported  was  untrue,  and  that 
the  statements  made  by  the  natives  to  me  were  true.  We  saw  only 
six  bodies;  a  seventh  had  evidently  fallen  into  the  water,  and  we 
learned  in  a  day  or  two  that  an  eighth  body  had  floated  into  the  landing- 
place  above  us  —  a  woman  that  had  either  been  thrown  or  had 
fallen  into  the  water  after  being  shot." 

On  December  5th,  he  says: 

"A  year  ago  we  passed  or  visited  between  here  and  Ikoko  the 
following  villages: 

Probable  population 

Lobwaka       250 

Boboko         250 

Bosungu        100 

Kenzie  150 

Bokaka  20D 

Mosenge        150 

Ituta  80 

Ngero  2,000 

Total 3,180 

"A  week  ago  I  went  up,  and  only  at  Ngero  were  there  any  people: 
there  we  found  ten.  Ikoko  did  not  contain  over  twelve  people  other 
than  those  employed  by  Frank.     Beyond  Ikoko  the  case  is  the  same." 

April  1 2th,  1895,  he  writes: 

"I  am  sorry  that  rubber  palavers  continue.  Every  week  we  hear 
of  some  fighting,  and  there  are  frequent  'rows,'  even  in  our  village, 


48  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

with  the  armed  and  unruly  soldiers.  .  .  .  During  the  past 
twelve  months  it  has  cost  more  lives  than  native  wars  and  superstition 
would  have  sacrificed  in  three  to  five  years.  The  people  make  this 
comparison  among  themselves.  ...  It  seems  incredible  and 
awful  to  think  of  these  savage  men  armed  with  rifles  and  let  loose 
to  hunt  and  kill  people,  because  they  do  not  get  rubber  to  sell  at  a 
mere  nothing  to  the  State,  and  it  is  blood-curdling  to  see  them  returning 
with  hands  of  the  slain  and  to  find  the  hands  of  young  children,  amongst 
bigger  ones,  evidencing  their  'bravery.'  " 

The  following  was  written  on  May  3rd,  1895: 

"The  war  on  account  of  rubber.  The  State  demands  that  the 
natives  shall  make  rubber  and  sell  same  to  its  agents  at  a  very  low 
price.  The  natives  do  not  like  it.  It  is  hard  work  and  very  poor 
pay,  and  takes  them  away  from  their  homes  into  the  forest,  where 
they  feel  very  unsafe,  as  there  are  always  feuds  among  them.  .  .  . 
The  rubber  from  this  district  has  cost  hundreds  of  lives,  and  the 
scenes  I  have  witnessed  while  unable  to  help  the  oppressed  have 
been  almost  enough  to  make  me  wish  I  were  dead.  The  soldiers, 
are  themselves  savages,  some  even  cannibals,  trained  to  use  rifles 
and  in  many  cases  they  are  sent  away  without  supervision,  and  they 
do  as  they  please.  When  they  come  to  any  town  no  man's  property 
or  wife  is  safe,  and  when  they  are  at  war  they  are  like  devils. 

"Imagine  them  returning  from  fighting  some  'rebels^'  see,  on  the 
bow  of  the  canoe  is  a  pole  and  a  bundle  of  something  on  it.  .  .  . 
These  are  the  hands  {right  hands)  of  sixteen  warriors  they  have  slain. 
*  Warriors!'  Don't  you  see  among  them  the  hands  of  little  children  and 
girls  (young  girls  or  boys)?  I  have  seen  them.  I  have  seen  where 
even  the  trophy  has  been  cut  of  while  yet  the  poor  heart  beat  strongly 
enough  to  shoot  the  blood  from  the  cut  arteries  to  a  distance  of  fully 
four  feet." 

"A  young  baby  was  brought  here  one  time;  its  mother  was  taken 
prisoner,  and  before  her  eyes  they  threw  the  infant  in  the  water  to 
drown  it.  The  soldiers  coolly  told  me  and  my  wife  that  their  white 
man  did  not  want  them  to  bring  infants  to  their  place.  They  dragged 
the  women  off  and  left  the  infant  beside  us,  but  we  sent  the  child  to 
its  mother,  and  said  we  would  report  the  matter  to  the  chief  of  the 
post.  We  did  so,  but  the  men  were  not  punished.  The  principal 
offender  was  told  before  me  he  would  get  fifty  lashes,  but  I  heard  the 
same  mouth  send  a  message  to  say  he  would  not  be  flogged." 


VOICES  FROM  THE  DARKNESS  49 

Compare  with  this  the  following  extracts  from  King  Leopold's 
Officiel  Bulletin,  referring  to  this  very  tract  of  country : 

"The  exploitation  of  the  rubber  vines  of  this  district  was  under- 
taken barely  three  years  ago  by  M.  Fievez.  The  results  he  obtained 
have  been  unequalled.  The  district  produced  in  1895  more  than 
650  tons  of  rubber,  bought  {sic)  for  2\d.  (European  price),  and  sold 
at  Antwerp  for  55.  5^  per  kilo  (2  lbs.)." 

A  later  bulletin  adds: 

"With  this  development  of  general  order  is  combined  an  inevitable 
amelioration  in  the  native's  condition  of  existence  wherever  he  conies 
into  contact  with  the  European  element.     .     .     . 

"  Such  is,  in  fact,  one  of  the  ends  of  the  general  policy  of  the  State, 
to  promote  the  regeneration  of  the  race  by  instilling  into  him  a  higher 
idea  0}  the  necessity  of  labour." 

Truly,  I  know  nothing  in  history  to  match  such  documents  as 
these  —  pirates  and  bandits  have  never  descended  to  that  last  odious 
abyss  of  hypocrisy.  It  stands  alone,  colossal  in  its  horror,  colossal, 
too,   in  its  effrontery. 

A  few  more  anecdotes  from  the  worthy  Mr.  Clark,  This  is  an 
extract  from  a  letter  to  the  Chief  of  the  District,  Mueller: 

"There  is  a  matter  I  want  to  report  to  you  regarding  the  Nkake 
sentries.  You  remember  some  time  ago  they  took  eleven  canoes 
and  shot  some  Ikoko  people.  As  a  proof  they  went  to  you  with 
some  hands,  of  which  three  were  the  hands  of  little  children.  We 
heard  from  one  of  their  paddlers  that  one  child  was  not  dead  when 
its  hand  was  cut  off,  but  did  not  believe  the  story.  Three  days 
after  we  were  told  the  child  was  still  alive  in  the  bush.  I  sent  four 
of  my  men  to  see,  and  they  brought  back  a  little  girl  whose  right 
hand  had  been  cut  off,  and  she  left  to  die  from  the  wound.  The 
child  had  no  other  wound.  As  I  was  going  to  see  Dr.  Reusens 
about  my  own  sickness  I  took  the  child  to  him,  and  he  has  cut  the 
arm  and  made  it  right  and  I  think  she  will  live.  But  I  think  such 
awful  cruelty  should  be  punished." 

Mr.  Clark  still  clung  to  the  hope  that  King  Leopold  did  not  know 
of  the  results  of  his  own  system.     On  March  25th,  1896,  he  writes: 

"This  rubber  traffic  is  steeped  in  blood,  and  if  the  natives  were  to 
rise  and  sweep  every  white  person  on  the  upper  Congo  into  eternity 


50  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

there  would  still  he  left  a  fearful  balance  to  their  credit.  Is  it  not 
possible  for  some  American  of  influence  to  see  the  King  of  the  Bel- 
gians, and  let  him  know  what  is  being  done  in  his  name?  The 
Lake  is  reserved  for  the  King  —  no  traders  allowed  —  and  to  collect 
rubber  for  him  hundreds  of  men,  women  and  children  have  been  shot." 

At  last  the  natives,  goaded  beyond  endurance,  rose  against  their 
oppressors.  Who  can  help  rejoicing  that  they  seem  to  have  had 
some  success? 

Extracts  from  letter-book  commencing  January  2gth,  1897: 

"The  native  uprising.  This  was  brought  about  at  last  by  sentries 
robbing  and  badly  treating  an  important  chief.  In  my  presence 
he  laid  his  complaint  before  M.  Mueller,  reporting  the  seizure  of  his 
wives  and  goods  and  the  personal  violence  he  had  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  M.  Mueller's  soldiers  stationed  in  his  town.  I  saw  M. 
Mueller  kick  him  off  his  veranda.  Within  forty-eight  hours  there 
were  no  'sentries'  or  their  followers  left  in  that  chief's  town  —  they 
were  killed  and  mutilated  —  and  soon  after  M.  Mueller,  with  another 
white  officer  and  many  soldiers,  were  killed,  and  the  revolt  began." 

Such  is  some  of  the  evidence,  a  very  small  portion  of  the  whole 
narrative  furnished  by  Mr.  Clark.  Remember  that  it  is  extracted 
from  a  long  series  of  letters  written  to  various  people  during  a  suc- 
cession of  years.  One  could  conceive  a  single  statement  being 
a  concoction,  but  the  most  ingenious  apologist  for  the  Congo  methods 
could  not  explain  how  such  a  document  as  this  could  be  other 
than  true. 

So  much  for  Mr.  Clark,  the  American.  The  e\ddence  of  Mr. 
Scrivener,  the  Englishman,  covering  roughly  the  same  place  and 
date,  will  follow.  But  lest  the  view  should  seem  too  Anglo-Saxon, 
let  me  interpolate  a  paragraph  from  the  travels  of  a  Frenchman,  M. 
Leon  Berthier,  whose  diary  was  published  by  the  Colonial  Institute 
of  Marseilles  in  1902: 

"Belgian  post  of  Imesse  well  constructed.  The  Chef  de  Poste 
is  absent.  He  has  gone  to  punish  the  village  of  M'Batchi,  guilty 
of  being  a  little  late  in  paying  the  rubber  tax.  ...  A  canoe 
full  of  Congo  State  soldiers  returns  from  the  pillage  of  M'Bat- 
chi. .  .  .  Thirty  killed,  fifty  wounded.  .  .  .  At  three  o'clock 
arrive  at  M'Batchi,  the  scene  of  the  bloody  punishment  of  the  Chef 
de   Poste   at   Imesse.      Poor  village!     The  debris   of   miserable 


VOICES  FROM  THE  DARKNESS  51 

huts.    .    .     .     One  goes  away  humiliated  and  saddened  from  these 
scenes  of  desolation,  filled  with  indescribable  feelings." 

In  showing  the  continuity  of  the  Congo  horror  and  the  extent 
of  its  duration  (an  extent  which  is  the  shame  of  the  great  Powers 
who  acquiesced  in  it  by  their  silence),  I  have  marshalled  witnesses 
in  their  successive  order.  Messrs.  Glave,  Murphy  and  Sjoblom 
have  covered  the  time  from  1894  to  1897;  Mr.  Clark  has  carried 
it  on  to  1900;  we  have  had  the  deeds  of  190 1-4  as  revealed  in  the 
Boma  Law  Courts.  I  shall  now  give  the  experience  of  Rev.  Mr. 
Scrivener,  and  English  missionary,  who  in  July,  August  and  Septem- 
ber, 1903,  traversed  a  section  of  the  Crown  Domain,  that  same 
region  specially  assigned  to  King  Leopold  in  person,  in  which  Mr. 
Clark  had  spent  so  many  nightmare  years.  We  shall  see  how  far 
the  independent  testimony  of  the  Englishman  and  the  American, 
the  one  extracted  from  a  diary,  the  other  from  a  succession  of  letters, 
corroborate  each  other: 

"At  six  in  the  morning  woke  up  to  find  it  still  raining.  It  kept 
on  till  nine,  and  we  managed  to  get  off  by  eleven.  All  the  cassava 
bread  was  finished  the  day  previous,  so  a  little  rice  was  cooked,  but 
it  was  a  hungry  crowd  that  left  the  little  village.  I  tried  to  find  out 
something  about  them.  They  said  they  were  runaways  from  a 
district  a  little  distance  away,  where  rubber  was  being  collected. 
They  told  us  some  horrible  tales  of  murder  and  starvation,  and  when 
we  heard  all  we  wondered  that  men  so  maltreated  should  be  able 
to  live  without  retaliation.  The  boys  and  girls  were  naked,  and  I 
gave  them  each  a  strip  of  calico,  much  to  their  wonderment.    .    .    . 

"Four  hours  and  a  half  brought  us  to  a  place  called  Sa.  .  .  . 
On  the  way  we  passed  two  villages  with  more  people  than  we  had 
seen  for  days.  There  may  have  been  120.  Close  to  the  post  was 
another  small  village.  We  decided  to  stay  there  the  rest  of  the  day. 
Three  chiefs  came  in  with  all  the  adult  members  of  their  people, 
and  altogether  there  were  not  300.  And  this  where,  not  more  than 
six  or  seven  years  ago,  there  were  at  least  3,000!  It  made  one's 
heart  heavy  to  listen  to  the  tales  of  bloodshed  and  cruelty.  And  it 
all  seemed  so  foolish.  To  kill  the  people  off  in  the  wholesale  way 
in  which  it  has  been  done  in  this  Lake  district,  because  they  would 
not  bring  in  a  sufficient  quantity  of  rubber  to  satisfy  the  white  man 
—  and  now  here  is  an  empty  country  and  a  very  much  diminished 
output  of  rubber  as  the  inevitable  consequeace.     ..." 


52  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

Finally  Mr.  Scrivener  emerged  in  the  neighbourhood  of  a  "big 
State  station."  He  was  hospitably  received,  and  had  many  chats 
with  his  host,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  very  decent  sort  of  man, 
doing  his  best  under  very  trying  circumstances.  His  predecessor 
had  worked  incalculable  havoc  in  the  country,  and  the  present 
occupant  of  the  post  was  endeavouring  to  carry  out  the  duties  assigned 
to  him  (those  duties  consisting,  as  usual,  of  orders  to  get  all  the 
rubber  possible  out  of  the  people)  with  as  much  humanity  as  the 
nature  of  the  task  permitted.  In  this  he,  no  doubt,  did  what  was 
possible  as  one  whom  the  system  had  not  yet  degraded  to  its  level 
—  one  of  the  rare  few:  and  one  cannot  wonder  that  they  should 
be  rare,  seeing  the  nature  of  the  bonds,  and  the  helplessness  in  which 
an  official  is  placed  who  does  not  carry  out  the  full  desires  of  his 
superiors.  But  he  had  only  succeeded  in  getting  himself  into  trouble 
with  the  district  commander  in  consequence.  He  showed  Mr. 
Scrivener  a  letter  from  the  latter  upbraiding  him  for  not  using  more 
vigorous  means,  telling  him  to  talk  less  and  shoot  more,  and  repri- 
manding him  for  not  killing  more  than  one  man  in  a  district  under 
his  care  where  there  was  a  little  trouble. 

Mr.  Scrivener  had  the  opportunity  while  at  this  State  post,  under 
the  regime  of  a  man  who  was  endeavouring  to  be  as  humane  as  his 
instructions  allowed,  to  actually  see  the  process  whereby  the  secret 
revenues  of  the  "Crown  Domain"  are  obtained.    He  says: 

"Everything  was  on  a  military  basis,  but,  so  far  as  I  could  see, 
the  one  and  only  reason  for  it  all  was  rubber.  It  was  the  theme  of 
every  conversation,  and  it  was  evident  that  the  only  way  to  please 
one's  superiors  was  to  increase  the  output  somehow.  I  saw  a  few 
men  come  in,  and  the  frightened  look  even  now  on  their  faces  tells 
only  too  eloquently  of  the  awful  time  they  have  passed  through. 
As  I  saw  it  brought  in,  each  man  had  a  little  basket,  containing,  say, 
four  or  five  pounds  of  rubber.  This  was  emptied  into  a  larger  basket 
and  weighed,  and  being  found  sufficient,  each  man  was  given  a  cup- 
ful of  coarse  salt,  and  to  some  of  the  head-men  a  fathom  of  calico. 
.  .  .  I  heard  from  the  white  men  and  some  of  the  soldiers  some 
most  gruesome  stories.  The  former  white  man  (I  feel  ashamed  of 
my  colour  every  time  I  think  of  him)  would  stand  at  the  door  of 
the  store  to  receive  the  rubber  from  the  poor  trembling  wretches, 
who  after,  in  some  cases,  weeks  of  privation  in  the  forest,  had  ven- 
tured in  with  what  they  had  been  able  to  collect.    A  man  bringing 


VOICES  FROM  THE  DARKNESS  53 

rather  under  the  proper  amount,  the  white  man  flies  into  a  rage,  and 
seizing  a  rifle  from  one  of  the  guards,  shoots  him  dead  on  the  spot. 
Very  rarely  did  rubber  come  in  but  one  or  more  were  shot  in  that 
way  at  the  door  of  the  store  —  'to  make  the  survivors  bring  more 
next  time.'  Men  who  had  tried  to  run  from  the  country  and  had 
been  caught,  were  brought  to  the  station  and  made  to  stand  one 
behind  the  other,  and  an  Albini  bullet  sent  through  them.  *A  pity 
to  waste  cartridges  on  such  wretches.'  Only  the  roads  to  and  fro 
from  the  various  posts  are  kept  open,  and  large  tracts  of  country  are 
abandoned  to  the  wild  beasts.  The  white  man  himself  told  me  that 
you  could  walk  on  for  five  days  in  one  direction,  and  not  see  a  single 
village  or  a  single  human  being.  And  this  where  formerly  there 
was  a  big  tribe!    .     .     . 

"As  one  by  one  the  surviving  relatives  of  my  men  arrived,  some 
affecting  scenes  were  enacted.  There  was  no  falling  on  necks  and 
weeping,  but  very  genuine  joy  was  shown  and  tears  were  shed  as  the 
losses  death  had  made  were  told.  How  they  shook  hands  and 
snapped  their  fingers !  What  expressions  of  surprise  —  the  wide- 
opened  mouth  covered  with  the  open  hand  to  make  its  evidence  of 
wonder  the  more  apparent.  ...  So  far  as  the  State  post  was 
concerned,  it  was  in  a  very  dilapidated  condition.  .  .  .  On  three 
sides  of  the  usual  huge  quadrangle  there  were  abundant  signs  of  a 
former  population,  but  we  only  found  three  villages  —  bigger, 
indeed,  than  any  we  had  seen  before,  but  sadly  diminished  from 
what  had  been  but  recently  the  condition  of  the  place.  .  .  .  Soon 
we  began  talking,  and,  without  any  encouragement  on  my  part, 
they  began  the  tales  I  had  become  so  accustomed  to.  They  were 
living  in  peace  and  quietness  when  the  white  men  came  in  from 
the  Lake  with  all  sorts  of  requests  to  do  this  and  to  do  that,  and  they 
thought  it  meant  slavery.  So  they  attempted  to  keep  the  white  men 
out  of  their  country,  but  without  avail.  The  rifles  were  too  much 
for  them.  So  they  submitted,  and  made  up  their  minds  to  do  the 
best  they  could  under  the  altered  circumstances.  First  came  the 
command  to  build  houses  for  the  soldiers,  and  this  was  done  without 
a  murmur.  Then  they  had  to  feed  the  soldiers,  and  all  the  men 
and  women  —  hangers-on  —  who  accompanied  them. 

"Then  they  were  told  to  bring  in  rubber.  This  was  quite  a  new 
thing  for  them  to  do.  There  was  rubber  in  the  forest  several  days 
away  from  their  home,  but  that  it  was  worth  anything  was  news 
to  them.    A  small  reward  was  offered,  and  a  rush  was  made  for  the 


54  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

rubber;  'What  strange  white  men,  to  give  us  cloth  and  beads  for 
the  sap  of  a  wild  vine.'  They  rejoiced  in  what  they  thought  was 
their  good  fortune.  But  soon  the  reward  was  reduced  until  they 
were  told  to  bring  in  the  rubber  for  nothing.  To  this  they  tried  to 
demur,  but  to  their  great  surprise  several  were  shot  by  the  soldiers, 
and  the  rest  were  told,  with  many  curses  and  blows,  to  go  at  once 
or  more  would  be  killed.  Terrified,  they  began  to  prepare  their 
food  for  the  fortnight's  absence  from  the  village,  which  the  collection 
of  the  rubber  entailed.  The  soldiers  discovered  them  sitting  about. 
'What,  not  gone  yet?'  Bang!  bang!  bang!  bang!  And  down 
fell  one  and  another,  dead,  in  the  midst  of  wives  and  companions. 
There  is  a  terrible  wail,  and  an  attempt  made  to  prepare  the  dead  for 
burial,  but  this  is  not  allowed.  All  must  go  at  once  to  the  forest. 
And  off  the  poor  wretches  had  to  go,  without  even  their  tinder- 
boxes  to  make  fires.  Many  died  in  the  forests  from  exposure  and 
hunger,  and  still  more  from  the  rifles  of  the  ferocious  soldiers  in 
charge  of  the  post.  In  spite  of  all  their  efforts,  the  amount  fell  off, 
and  more  and  more  were  killed.     .     .     . 

"  I  was  shown  around  the  place,  and  the  sites  of  former  big  chiefs' 
settlements  were  pointed  out.  A  careful  estimate  made  the  popu- 
lation, of  say,  seven  years  ago,  to  be  2,000  people  in  and  about  the 
post,  within  a  radius  of,  say  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  All  told,  they  would 
not  muster  200  now,  and  there  is  so  much  sadness  and  gloom  that  they 
are  fast  decreasing.  .  .  .  Lying  about  in  the  grass,  within  a 
few  yards  of  the  house  I  was  occupying,  were  numbers  of  human 
bones,  in  some  cases  complete  skeletons.  I  counted  thirty-six 
skulls,  and  saw  many  sets  of  bones  from  which  the  skulls  were  missing. 
I  called  one  of  the  men,  and  asked  the  meaning  of  it.  'When  the 
rubber  palaver  began,'  said  he,  '  the  soldiers  shot  so  many  we  grew 
tired  of  burying,  and  very  often  we  were  not  allowed  to  bury,  and  so 
just  dragged  the  bodies  out  into  the  grass  and  left  them.  There  are 
hundreds  all  round  if  you  would  like  to  see  them.'  But  I  had  seen 
more  than  enough,  and  was  sickened  by  the  stories  that  came  from 
men  and  women  alike  of  the  awful  time  they  had  passed  through. 
The  Bulgarian  atrocities  might  be  considered  as  mildness  itself  when 
compared  with  what  has  been  done  here.     .    .    . 

"In  due  course  we  reached  Ibali.  There  was  hardly  a  sound 
building  in  the  place.  .  .  .  Why  such  dilapidation?  The 
Commandant  away  for  a  trip  likely  to  extend  into  three  months, 
the  sub-lieutenant  away  in  another  direction  on  a  punitive  expedition. 


VOICES  FROM  THE  DARKNESS  55 

In  other  words,  the  station  must  be  neglected,  and  rubber-hunting 
carried  out  with  all  vigour.  I  stayed  here  two  days,  and  the  one  thing 
that  impressed  itself  upon  me  was  the  collection  of  rubber.  I  saw 
long  files  of  men  come,  as  at  Mbongo,  with  their  little  baskets  under 
their  arms,  saw  them  paid  their  milk-tin  full  of  salt,  and  the  two  yards 
of  calico  flung  to  the  head-men;  saw  their  trembling  timidity,  and,  in 
fact,  a  great  deal  more,  to  prove  the  state  of  terrorism  that  exists,  and 
the  virtual  slavery  in  which  the  people  are  held.     .     .     . 

"So  much  for  the  journey  to  the  Lake.  It  has  enlarged  my 
knowledge  of  the  country,  and  also,  alas!  my  knowledge  of  the  awful 
deeds  enacted  in  the  mad  haste  of  men  to  get  rich.  So  far  as  I  know, 
I  am  the  first  white  man  to  go  into  the  Domaine  Prive  of  the  King, 
other  than  the  employees  of  the  State.  I  expect  there  will  be  wrath 
in  some  quarters,  but  that  cannot  be  helped." 

So  far  Mr.  Scrivener.  But  perhaps  the  reader  may  think  that 
there  really  was  a  missionary  plot  to  decry  the  Free  State.  Let 
us  have  some  travellers,  then.  Here  is  Mr.  Grogan  from  his  "  Cape 
to  Cairo": 

"The  people  were  terrorized  and  were  living  in  marshes."  This 
was  on  the  British  frontier.  "  The  Belgians  have  crossed  the  frontier, 
descended  into  the  valley,  shot  down  large  numbers  of  natives,  British 
subjects,  driven  off  the  young  women  and  cattle,  and  actually  tied  up 
and  burned  the  old  women.  I  do  not  make  these  statements  without 
having  gone  into  the  matter.  I  remarked  on  the  absence  of  women 
and  the  reason  was  given.  It  was  on  further  inquiry  that  I  was 
assured  by  the  natives  that  white  men  had  been  present  when  the 
old  women  had  been  burned.  .  .  .  They  even  described  to  me 
the  personal  appearance  of  the  white  officers  with  the  troops.  .  .  . 
The  wretched  people  came  to  me  and  asked  me  why  the  British  had 
deserted  them." 

Further  on  he  says: 

"  Every  village  had  been  burned  to  the  ground,  and  as  I  fled  from 
the  country  I  saw  skeletons,  skeletons  everywhere.  And  such 
postures!    What  tales  of  horror  they  told." 

Just  a  word  in  conclusion  from  another  witness,  Mr.  Herbert  Frost: 

"The  power  of  an  armed  soldier  among  these  enslaved  people 
is  absolutely  paramount.     By  chief  or  child,  every  command,  wish, 


56  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

or  whim  of  the  soldier  must  be  obeyed  or  gratified.  At  his  command 
with  rifle  ready  a  man  will  .  .  .  outrage  his  own  sister,  give 
to  his  persecutor  the  wife  he  loves  most  of  all,  say  or  do  anything, 
indeed,  to  save  his  life.  The  woes  and  sorrows  of  the  race  whom 
King  Leopold  has  enslaved  have  not  decreased,  for  his  Commissaire 
officers  and  agents  have  introduced  and  maintain  a  system  of  deviltry 
hitherto  undreamed  of  by  his  victims." 

Does  this  all  seem  horrible?  But  in  the  face  of  it  is  there  not 
something  more  horrible  in  a  sentence  of  this  kind  ?  — 

"Our  only  programme,  I  am  anxious  to  repeat,  is  the  work  of 
moral  and  material  regeneration,  and  we  must  do  this  among  a 
population  whose  degeneration  in  its  inherited  conditions  it  is  difficult 
to  measure.  The  many  horrors  and  atrocities  which  disgrace  human- 
ity give  way  little  by  little  before  our  intervention." 

It  is  King  Leopold  who  speaks. 


vn 

CONSUL  ROGER  CASEMENT'S  REPORT 

UP  TO  this  time  the  pubHshed  reports  as  to  the  black  doings 
of  King  Leopold  and  his  men  were,  with  the  exception  of 
a  guarded  document  from  Consul  Pickersgill,  in  1898, 
entirely  from  private  individuals.  No  doubt  there  were  official 
reports  but  the  Government  withheld  them.  In  1904,  this  policy 
of  reticence  was  abandoned,  and  the  historic  report  of  Consul  Roger 
Casement  confirmed,  and  in  some  ways  amplified,  all  that  had 
reached  Europe  from  other  sources. 

A  word  or  two  as  to  Mr.  Casement's  own  personality  and  qualifica- 
tions may  not  be  amiss,  since  both  were  attacked  by  his  Belgian 
detractors.  He  is  a  tried  and  experienced  public  servant,  who  has 
had  exceptional  opportunities  of  knowing  Africa  and  the  natives. 
He  entered  the  Consular  Service  in  1892,  served  on  the  Niger 
till  1895,  "^'^s  Consul  at  Delagoa  Bay  to  1898,  and  was  finally 
transferred  to  the  Congo.  Personally,  he  is  a  man  of  the  highest 
character,  truthful,  unselfish  —  one  who  is  deeply  respected  by  all 
who  know  him.  His  experience,  which  deals  with  the  Crown  Domain 
districts  in  the  year  1903,  covers  some  sixty-two  pages,  to  be  read  in 
full  in  ** White  Book,  Africa,  No.  i,  1904."  I  will  not  apologize 
for  the  length  of  the  extracts,  as  this,  the  first  official  exposure,  was 
an  historical  document  and  from  its  publication  we  mark  the  first  step 
in  that  train  of  events  which  is  surely  destined  to  remove  the  Congo 
State  from  hands  which  have  proved  so  unworthy,  and  to  place  it  in 
conditions  which  shall  no  longer  be  a  disgrace  to  European  civilization. 
It  may  be  remarked  before  beginning  that  at  some  of  these  conver- 
sations with  the  natives  Mr.  Scrivener  was  present,  and  that  he 
corroborates  the  account  given  by  the  Consul. 

The  beginning  of  Mr.  Casement's  report  shows  how  willing  he  was 
to  give  praise  where  praise  was  possible,  and  to  say  all  that  could 
be  said  for  the  Administration.  He  talks  of  "energetic  European 
intervention,"  and  adds,  "that  very  much  of  this  intervention  has 

57 


58  '  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

been  called  for  no  one  who  formerly  knew  the  Upper  Congo  could 
doubt."  "Admirably  built  and  admirably  kept  stations  greet  the 
traveller  at  many  points."  "To-day  the  railway  works  most  efl5- 
ciently."  He  attributes  sleeping  sickness  as  "one  cause  of  the  seem- 
ingly wholesale  diminution  of  human  life  which  I  everywhere  observed 
in  the  regions  re- visited;  a  prominent  place  must  be  assigned  to  this 
malady.  The  natives  certainly  attribute  their  alarming  death-rate 
to  this  as  one  of  the  inducing  causes,  although  they  attribute,  and  I 
think  principally,  their  rapid  decrease  in  numbers  to  other  causes 
as  well." 

TJie  Government  work  shop  "was  brightness,  care,  order,  and 
activity,  and  it  was  impossible  not  to  admire  and  commend  the 
industry  which  had  created  and  maintained  in  constant  working 
order  this  useful  establishment." 

These  are  not  the  words  of  a  critic  who  has  started  with  a  preju- 
diced mind  or  the  desire  to  make  out  a  case. 

In  the  lower  reaches  of  the  river  above  Stanley  Pool  Casement 
found  no  gross  ill-usage.  The  natives  were  hopeless  and  listless, 
being  debarred  from  trade  and  heavily  taxed  in  food,  fish  and  other 
produce.  It  was  not  until  he  began  to  approach  the  cursed  rubber 
zones  that  terrible  things  began  to  dawn  upon  him.  Casement 
had  travelled  in  1887  in  the  Congo,  and  was  surprised  to  note  the 
timidity  of  the  natives.    Soon  he  had  his  explanation: 

"At  one  of  these  village,  S ,  after  confidence  had  been  restored 

and  the  fugitives  had  been  induced  to  come  in  from  the  surrounding 
forest,  where  they  had  hidden  themselves,  I  saw  women  coming 
back,  carrying  their  babies,  their  household  utensils,  and  even  the 
food  they  had  hastily  snatched  up,  up  to  a  late  hour  of  the  evening. 
Meeting  some  of  these  returning  women  in  one  of  the  fields  I  asked 
them  why  they  had  run  away  at  my  approach,  and  they  said,  smiling, 
*  We  thought  you  were  Bula  Matadi'  (i.  e.,  'men  of  the  Government'). 
Fear  of  this  kind  was  formerly  unknown  on  the  Upper  Congo;  and 
in  much  more  out-of-the-way  places  visited  many  years  ago  the 
people  flocked  from  all  sides  to  greet  a  white  stranger.  But  to-day 
the  apparition  of  a  white  man's  steamer  evidently  gave  the  signal 
for  instant  flight." 

".  .  .  Men,  he  said,  still  came  to  him  whose  hands  had 
been  cut  off  by  the  Government  soldiers  during  those  evil  days,  and 
he  said  there  were  still  many  victims  of  this  species  of  mutilation  in 


CONSUL  ROGER  CASEMENT'S  REPORT  59 

the  surrounding  country.  Two  cases  of  the  kind  came  to  my  actual 
notice  while  I  was  in  the  lake.  One,  a  young  man,  both  of  whose 
hands  had  been  beaten  off  with  the  butt-ends  of  rifles  against  a  tree, 
the  other  a  young  lad  of  eleven  or  twelve  years  of  age,  whose  right 
hand  was  cut  off  at  the  wrist.  This  boy  described  the  circumstances 
of  his  mutilation,  and,  in  answer  to  my  inquiry,  said  that  although 
wounded  at  the  time  he  was  perfectly  sensible  of  the  severing  of 
his  wrist,  but  lay  still  fearing  that  if  he  moved  he  would  be  killed. 
In  both  these  cases  the  Government  soldiers  had  been  accompanied 
by  white  officers  whose  names  were  given  to  me.  Of  six  natives 
(one  a  girl,  three  little  boys,  one  youth,  and  one  old  woman)  who 
had  been  mutilated  in  this  way  during  the  rubber  regime,  all  except 
one  were  dead  at  the  date  of  my  visit.  The  old  woman  had  died 
at  the  beginning  of  this  year,  and  her  niece  described  to  me  how  the 
act  of  mutilation  in  her  case  had  been  accomplished." 

The  fines  inflicted  upon  villages  for  trifling  offences  were  such  as 
to  produce  the  results  here  described: 

"The  officer  had  then  imposed  as  further  punishment  a  fine  of 
55,000  brass  rods  (2,750  fr.) — ;4iio-  This  sum  they  had  been 
forced  to  pay,  and  as  they  had  no  other  means  of  raising  so  large 
a  sum  they  had,  many  of  them,  been  compelled  to  sell  their  children 

and  their  wives.    I  saw  no  live-stock  of  any  kind  in  W save 

a  very  few  fowls  —  possibly  under  a  dozen  —  and  it  seemed,  indeed, 
not  unlikely  that,  as  these  people  asserted,  they  had  great  difficulty 
in  always  getting  their  supplies  ready.  A  father  and  mother  stepped 
out  and  said  that  they  had  been  forced  to  sell  their  son,  a  little  boy 
called  F,  for  1,000  rods  to  meet  their  share  of  the  fine.  A  widow 
came  and  declared  that  she  had  been  forced,  in  order  to  meet  her 
share  of  the  fine,  to  sell  her  daughter  G,  a  little  girl  whom  I  judged 
from  her  description  to  be  about  ten  years  of  age.     She  had  been 

sold  to  a  man  in  Y ,  who  was  named,  for  1,000  rods,  which  had 

then  gone  to  make  up  the  fine." 

The  natives  were  broken  in  spirit  by  the  treatment: 

"One  of  them  —  a  strong,  indeed,  a  splendid-looking  man  — 
broke  down  and  wept,  sa)dng  that  their  lives  were  useless  to  them, 
and  that  they  knew  of  no  means  of  escape  from  the  troubles  which 
were  gathering  around  them.  I  could  only  assure  these  people  that 
their  obvious  course  to  obtain  relief  was  by  appeal  to  their  own 


6o  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

constituted  authorities,  and  that  if  their  circumstances  were  clearly 
understood  by  those  responsible  for  these  fines  I  trusted  and  believed 
some  satisfaction  would  be  forthcoming." 

These  fines,  it  may  be  added,  were  absolutely  illegal.  It  was 
the  officer,  not  the  poor,  harried  natives,  who  had  broken  the  law. 

"These  fines,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  are  illegally  imposed; 
they  are  not  'fines  of  Court';  are  not  pronounced  after  any  judicial 
hearing,  or  for  any  proved  offence  against  the  law,  but  are  quite 
arbitrarily  levied  according  to  the  whim  or  ill-will  of  the  executive 
officers  of  the  district,  and  their  collection,  as  well  as  their  imposition, 
involves  continuous  breaches  of  the  Congolese  laws.  They  do  not, 
moreover,  figure  in  the  account  of  public  revenues  in  the  Congo 
'Budgets';  they  are  not  paid  into  the  public  purse  of  the  country, 
but  are  spent  on  the  needs  of  the  station  or  military  camp  of  the 
officer  imposing  them,  just  as  seems  good  to  this  official." 

Here  is  an  illustrative  anecdote: 

"One  of  the  largest  Congo  Concession  Companies  had,  when 
I  was  on  the  Upper  River,  addressed  a  request  to  its  Directors  in 
Europe  for  a  further  supply  of  ball-cartridge.  The  Directors  had 
met  this  demand  by  asking  what  had  become  of  the  72,000  cartridges 
shipped  some  three  years  ago,  to  which  a  reply  was  sent  to  the  effect 
that  these  had  all  been  used  in  the  production  of  india-rubber.  I 
did  not  see  this  correspondence,  and  cannot  vouch  for  the  truth  of 
the  statement;  but  the  officer  who  informed  me  that  it  had  passed 
before  his  own  eyes  was  one  of  the  highest  standing  in  the  interior." 

Another  witness  showed  the  exact  ratio  between  cartridges  and 
rubber: 

"  'The  S.  A.  B.  on  the  Bussira,  with  150  guns,  get  only  ten  tons 
(rubber)  a  month;  we,  the  State,  at  Momboyo,  with  130  guns, 
get  thirteen  tons  per  month.'  '  So  you  count  by  guns  ?'  I  asked  him. 
'Partout,'  M.  P.  said.  'Each  time  the  corporal  goes  out  to  get 
rubber  cartridges  are  given  to  him.  He  must  bring  back  all  not 
used;  and  for  every  one  used,  he  must  bring  back  a  right  hand.' 
M.  P.  told  me  that  sometimes  they  shot  a  cartridge  at  an  animal 
in  hunting;  they  then  cut  off  a  hand  from  a  living  man.  As  to  the 
extent  to  which  this  is  carried  on,  he  informed  me  that  in  six  months 
they,  the  State,  on  the  Momboyo  River,  had  used  6,000  cartridges, 


CONSUL  ROGER  CASEMENT'S  REPORT  6i 

which  means  that  6,000  people  are  killed  or  mutilated.  It  means 
more  than  6,000  for  the  people  have  told  me  repeatedly  that  the 
soldiers  kill  children  with  the  butt  of  their  guns." 

That  the  statement  about  the  cutting  off  of  living  hands  is  correct 
is  amply  proved  by  the  Kodak.  I  have  photographs  of  at  least 
twenty  such  mutilated  Negroes  in  my  own  possession. 

Here  is  a  copy  of  a  dispatch  from  an  official  quoted  in  its  naked 
frankness :  ' 

"Le  Chef  Ngulu  de  Wangata  est  envoys  dans  la  Maringa,  pour 
m'y  acheter  des  esclaves.  Priere  a  MM.  les  agents  de  I'A.B.I.R. 
de  bien  vouloir  me  signaler  les  mefaits  que  celui-ci  pourrait  com- 
mettre  en  route. 

"Le  Capitaine-Commandant, 

(Signe)  "Sarrazzyn." 
^'Colquilhatville,  le  i"  Mai,  1896." 

Pretty  good  for  the  State  which  boasts  that  it  has  put  down  the 
slave  trade. 

There  is  a  passage  showing  the  working  of  the  rubber  system 
which  is  so  clear  and  authoritative  that  I  transcribe  it  in  full: 

"I  went  to  the  homes  of  these  men  some  miles  away  and  found 
out  their  circumstances.  To  get  the  rubber  they  had  first  to  go 
fully  a  two  days'  journey  from  their  homes,  leaving  their  wives, 
and  being  absent  for  from  five  to  six  days.  They  were  seen  to  the 
forest  limits  under  guard,  and  if  not  back  by  the  sixth  day  trouble 
was  likely  to  ensue.  To  get  the  rubber  in  the  forests  —  which, 
generally  speaking,  are  very  swampy  —  involves  much  fatigue  and 
often  fruitless  searching  for  a  well-flowing  vine.  As  the  area  of 
supply  diminishes,  moreover,  the  demand  for  rubber  constantly 
increases.  Some  little  time  back  I  learned  the  Bongandanga  district 
supplied  seven  tons  of  rubber  a  month,  a  quantity  which  it  was 
hoped  would  shortly  be  increased  to  ten  tons.  The  quantity  of 
rubber  brought  by  the  three  men  in  question  would  have  represented, 
probably,  for  the  three  of  them  certainly  not  less  than  seven  kilog. 
of  pure  rubber.  That  would  be  a  very  safe  estimate,  and  at  an 
average  of  yfr.  per  kilog.  they  might  be  said  to  have  brought  in  £2 
worth  of  rubber.  In  return  for  this  labour,  or  imposition,  they  had 
received  goods  which  cost  certainly  under   is.,  and  whose  local 


62  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

valuation  came  to. 45  rods  (i^.  lod.).  As  this  process  repeats  itself 
twenty-six  times  a  year,  it  will  be  seen  that  they  would  have  yielded 
;i^52  in  kind  at  the  end  of  the  year  to  the  local  factory,  and  would 
have  received  in  return  some  24s.  or  255.  worth  of  goods,  which  Lci,a 
a  market  value  on  the  spot  of  £2  75.  8^.  In  addition  to  these  formal 
payments  they  were  liable  at  times  to  be  dealt  with  in  another  manner, 
for  should  their  work,  which  might  have  been  just  as  hard,  have 
proved  less  profitable  in  its  yield  of  rubber,  the  local  prison  would 
have  seen  them.  The  people  everywhere  assured  me  that  they  were 
not  happy  under  this  system,  and  it  was  apparent  to  a  callous  eye 
that  in  this  they  spoke  the  strict  truth." 

Again  I  insert  a  passage  to  show  that  Casement '  u,s  by  no  means 
an  ill-natured  critic: 

"It  is  only  right  to  say  that  the  present  agent  of  the  A.B.I.R. 
Society  I  met  at  Bongandan;;a  ^jemed  to  me  to  try,  in  very  difficult 
and  embarrassing  circumstances,  to  minimize  as  far  as  possible, 
and  within  the  limits  of  his  duties,  the  evils  of  the  system  I  there 
observed  at  work." 

Speaking  of  the  Mongalla  massacres  —  those  in  which  Lothaire  was 
impHcated  —  he  quotes  from  the  judgment  of  the  Court  of  Appeal : 

"That  it  is  just  to  take  into  account  that,  by  the  correspondence 
produced  in  the  case,  the  chiefs  of  the  Concession  Company  have, 
if  not  by  formal  orders,  at  least  by  their  example  and  their  tolerance, 
induced  their  agents  to  take  no  account  whatever  of  the  rights, 
property,  and  lives  of  the  natives;  to  use  the  arms  and  the  soldiers 
which  should  have  served  for  their  defence  and  the  maintenance  of 
order  to  force  the  natives  to  furnish  them  with  produce  and  to  work 
for  the  Company,  as  also  to  pursue  as  rebels  and  outlaws  those  who 
sought  to  escape  from  the  requisitions  imposed  upon  them.  .  .  . 
That,  above  all,  the  fact  that  the  arrest  of  women  and  their  detention, 
to  compel  the  villages  to  furnish  both  produce  and  workmen,  was 
tolerated  and  admitted  even  by  certain  of  the  administrative 
authorities  of  the  region." 

Yet  another  example  of  the  workings  of  the  system: 

"In  the  morning,  when  about  to  start  for  K ,  many  people 

from  the  surrounding  country  came  in  to  see  me.    They  brought 


CONSUL  ROGER  CASEMENT'S  REPORT  63 

with  them  three  individuals  who  had  been  shockingly  wounded  by 
gun  fire,  two  men  and  a  very  small  boy,  not  more  than  six  years  of 
age,  and  a  fourth  —  a  boy  child  of  six  or  seven  —  whose  right  hand 
was  c^^"  off  at  the  wrist.    One  of  the  men,  who  had  been  shot  through 

the  arm,  declared  that  he  was  Y  of  L ,  a  village  situated  some 

miles  away.  He  declared  that  he  had  been  shot  as  I  saw  under  the 
following  circumstances:  the  soldiers  had  entered  his  town,  he 
alleged,  to  enforce  the  due  fulfilment  of  the  rubber  tax  due  by  the 
community.  These  men  had  tied  him  up  and  said  that  unless  he 
pt-id  1,000  brass  rods  to  them  they  would  shoot  him.  Having  no 
rods  to  give  them  they  had  shot  him  through  the  arm  and  had 
left  him." 

I  may  say  that  among  my  photographs  are  several  with  shattered 
arms  who  have  been  treated  in  *his  fashion. 

This  is  how  the  natives  were  treated  when  they  complained  to 
the  white  man: 

"In  addition,  fifty  women  are  required  each  morning  to  go  to 
the  factory  and  work  there  all  day.  They  complained  that  the 
remuneration  given  for  these  services  was  most  inadequate,  and 
that  they  were  continually  beaten.  When  I  asked  the  Chief  W 
why  he  had  not  gone  to  D  F  to  complain  if  the  sentries  beat  him 
or  his  people,  opening  his  mouth  he  pointed  to  one  of  the  teeth 
which  was  just  dropping  out,  and  said:  'That  is  what  I  got  from 
the  D  F  four  days  ago  when  I  went  to  tell  him  what  I  now  say  to 
you.'  He  added  that  he  was  frequently  beaten,  along  with  others 
of  his  people,  by  the  white  man." 

One  sentry  was  taken  almost  red-handed  by  Mr.  Casement: 

"  After  some  little  delay  a  boy  of  about  fifteen  years  of  age  appeared, 
whose  left  arm  was  wrapped  up  in  a  dirty  rag.  Removing  this,  I 
found  the  left  hand  had  been  hacked  off  by  the  wrist,  and  that  a  shot 
hole  appeared  in  the  fleshy  part  of  the  forearm.  The  boy,  who  gave 
his  name  as  I  I,  in  answer  to  my  inquiry,  said  that  a  sentry  of  the 
La  Lulanga  Company  now  in  the  town  had  cut  off  his  hand.  I 
proceeded  to  look  for  this  man,  who  at  first  could  not  be  found,  the 
natives  to  a  considerable  number  gathering  behind  me  as  I  walked 
through  the  town.  After  some  delay  the  sentry  appeared,  carrying 
a  cap-gun.  The  boy,  whom  I  placed  before  him,  then  accused 
him  to  his  face  of  having  mutilated  him.    The  men  of  the  town, 


64  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

who  were  questioned  in  succession,  corroborated  the  boy's  statement. 
The  sentry,  who  gave  his  name  as  K  K,  could  make  no  answer  to 
the  charge.  He  met  it  by  vaguely  saying  some  other  sentry  of  the 
Company  had  mutilated  I  I;  his  predecessor,  he  said,  had  cut  off 
several  hands,  and  probably  this  was  one  of  the  victims.  The 
natives  around  said  that  there  were  two  other  sentries  at  present 
in  the  town,  who  were  not  so  bad  as  K  K,  but  that  he  was  a  villain. 
As  the  evidence  against  him  was  perfectly  clear,  man  after  man 
standing  out  and  declaring  he  had  seen  the  act  committed,  I  informed 
him  and  the  people  present  that  I  should  appeal  to  the  local  authorities 
for  his  immediate  arrest  and  trial." 

The  following  extract  must  be  my  final  quotation  from  Consul 
Casement's  report: 

"I  asked  then  how  this  tax  was  imposed.  One  of  them,  who 
had  been  hammering  out  an  iron  neck-collar  on  my  arrival,  spoke 
first.     He  said: 

"  '  I  am  N  N.    These  other  two  beside  me  are  O  O  and  P  P, 

all  of  us  Y .    From  our  country  each  village  had  to  take  twenty 

loads  of  rubber.  These  loads  were  big:  they  were  as  big  as  this. 
.  .  .'  (Producing  an  empty  basket  which  came  nearly  up  to 
the  handle  of  my  walking-stick.)  'That  was  the  first  size.  We 
had  to  fill  that  up,  but  as  rubber  got  scarcer  the  white  man  reduced 
the  amount.    We  had  to  take  these  loads  in  four  times  a  month.' 

"Q.     '  How  much  pay  did  you  get  for  this  ?' 

"A.     (Entire  audience.)     '  We  got  no  pay !    We  got  nothing ! ' 

"  And  then  N  N,  whom  I  asked  again,  said : 

"  'Our  village  got  cloth  and  a  little  salt,  but  not  the  people  who 
did  the  work.  Our  chiefs  eat  up  the  cloth;  the  workers  got  nothing. 
The  pay  was  a  fathom  of  cloth  and  a  little  salt  for  every  big  basket- 
ful, but  it  was  given  to  the  chief,  never  to  the  men.  It  used  to 
take  ten  days  to  get  the  twenty  baskets  of  rubber  —  we  were  always 
in  the  forest  and  then  when  we  were  late  we  were  killed.  We  had 
to  go  further  and  further  into  the  forest  to  find  the  rubber  vines,  to 
go  without  food,  and  our  women  had  to  give  up  cultivating  the  fields 
and  gardens.  Then  we  starved.  Wild  beasts  —  the  leopards  — 
killed  some  of  us  when  we  were  working  away  in  the  forest,  and 
others  got  lost  or  died  from  exposure  and  starvation,  and  we  begged 
the  white  man  to  leave  us  alone,  saying  we  could  get  no  more  rubber, 
but  the  white  men  and  their  soldiers  said:  "Go!    You  are  only 


CONSUL  ROGER  CASEMENT'S  REPORT  65 

beasts  yourselves;  you  are  nyama  (meat)."  We  tried,  always  going 
further  into  the  forest,  and  when  we  failed  and  our  rubber  was  short, 
the  soldiers  came  to  our  towns  and  killed  us.  Many  were  shot,  some 
had  their  ears  cut  off:  others  were  tied  up  with  ropes  around  their 
necks  and  bodies  and  taken  away.  The  white  men  sometimes  at 
the  posts  did  not  know  of  the  bad  things  the  soldiers  did  to  us,  but 
it  was  the  white  men  who  sent  the  soldiers  to  punish  us  for  not  bringing 
in  enough  rubber.* 

"Here  P  P  took  up  the  tale  from  N  N: 

"  'We  said  to  the  white  men,  "We  are  not  enough  people  now  to 
do  what  you  want  us.  Our  country  has  not  many  people  in  it  and 
we  are  dying  fast.  We  are  killed  by  the  work  you  make  us  do,  by 
the  stoppage  of  our  plantations,  and  the  breaking  up  of  our  homes." 
The  white  man  looked  at  us  and  said:  "There  are  lots  of  people  in 
Mputu" '  (Europe,  the  white  man's  country).  '"If  there  are  lots 
of  people  in  the  white  man's  country  there  must  be  many  people 
in  the  black  man's  country."     The  white  man  who  said  this  was 

the  chief  white  man  at  F  F ;  his  name  was  A  B;  he  was  a  very 

bad  man.  Other  white  men  of  Bula  Matadi  who  had  been  bad 
and  wicked  were  B  C,  C  D,  and  D  E.'  'These  had  killed  us  often, 
and  killed  us  by  their  own  hands  as  well  as  by  their  soldiers.  Some 
white  men  were  good.    These  were  E  F,  F  G,  G  H,  H  I,  I  K,  K  L.' 

"These  ones  told  them  to  stay  in  their  homes  and  did  not  hunt 
and  chase  them  as  the  others  had  done,  but  after  what  they  had 
suffered  they  did  not  trust  more  any  one's  word,  and  they  had  fled 
from  their  country  and  were  now  going  to  stay  here,  far  from  their 
homes,  in  this  country  where  there  was  no  rubber. 

"Q.  'How  long  is  it  since  you  left  your  homes,  since  the  big 
trouble  you  speak  of?' 

"A.  'It  lasted  for  three  full  seasons,  and  it  is  now  four  seasons 
since  we  fled  and  came  into  the  K country.' 

"Q.    'How  many  days  is  it  from  N to  your  own  country?' 

"^.  'Six  days  of  quick  marching.  We  fled  because  we  could 
not  endure  the  things  done  to  us.  Our  chiefs  were  hanged,  and 
we  were  killed  and  starved  and  worked  beyond  endurance  to  get 
rubber.' 

"Q.  'How  do  you  know  it  was  the  white  men  themselves  who 
ordered  these  cruel  things  to  be  done  to  you  ?  These  things  must 
have  been  done  without  the  white  man's  knowledge  by  the  black 
soldiers.' 


66  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

"A.  (PP):  'The  white  men  told  their  soldiers:  "You  kill 
only  women;  you  cannot  kill  men.  You  must  prove  that  you 
kill  men."  So  then  the  soldiers  when  they  killed  us'  (here  he  stopped 
and  hesitated,  and  then  pointing  to  the  private  parts  of  my  bulldog 
—  it  was  lying  asleep  at  my  feet),  he  said:  'then  they  cut  off  those 
things  and  took  them  to  the  white  men,  who  said:  "It  is  true,  you 
have  killed  men."  ' 

"Q.  'You  mean  to  tell  me  that  any  white  man  ordered  your 
bodies  to  be  mutilated  like  that,  and  those  parts  of  you  carried  to 
him?' 

"PP,  O  O,  and  all  (shouting):  'Yes!  many  white  men.  DE 
did  it.' 

"Q.  'You  say  this  is  true?  Were  many  of  you  so  treated  after 
being  shot?' 

"All  (shouting  out):  'Nkoto!  Nkoto!'  (Very  many!  Very 
many!) 

"  There  was  no  doubt  that  these  people  were  not  inventing.  Their 
veh^Ynence,  their  flashing  eyes,  their  excitement,  was  not  simulated. 
Doubtless  they  exaggerated  the  numbers,  but  they  were  clearly 
telling  what  they  knew  and  loathed.  I  was  told  that  they  often 
became  so  furious  at  the  recollection  of  what  had  been  done  to 
them  that  they  lost  control  over  themselves.  One  of  the  men  before 
me  was  getting  into  this  state  now." 

Such  is  the  story  —  or  a  very  small  portion  of  it  —  which  His 
Majesty's  Consul  conveyed  to  His  Majesty's  Government  as  to  the 
condition  of  those  natives,  who,  "in  the  name  of  Almighty  God," 
we  had  pledged  ourselves  to  defend! 

The  same  damning  White  Book  contained  a  brief  account  of 
Lord  Cromer's  experience  upon  the  Upper  Nile  in  the  Lado  district. 
He  notes  that  for  eighty  miles  the  side  of  the  river  which  is  British 
territory  was  crowded  with  native  villages,  the  inhabitants  of  which 
ran  along  the  bank  calling  to  the  steamer.  The  other  bank  (Congo- 
lese territory),  was  a  deserted  wilderness.  The  "Tuquoque" 
argument  which  King  Leopold's  henchmen  are  so  fond  of  advancing 
will  find  it  hard  to  reconcile  the  difference.  Lord  Cromer  ends 
his  report: 

"It  appears  to  me  that  the  facts  which  I  have  stated  above  afford 
amply  sufficient  evidence  of  the  spirit  which  animates  the  Belgian 
Administration,  if,  indeed,  Administration  it  can  be  called.    The 


CONSUL  ROGER  CASEMENT'S  REPORT  67 

Government,  so  far  as  I  could  judge,  is  conducted  almost  exclusively 
on  commercial  principles,  and,  even  judged  by  that  standard,  it 
would  appear  that  those  principles  are  somewhat  short-sighted." 

In  the  same  White  Book  which  contains  these  documents  there 
is  printed  the  Congolese  defence  drawn  up  by  M.  de  Cuvelier.  The 
defence  consists  in  simply  ignoring  all  the  definite  facts  laid  before 
the  public,  and  in  making  such  statements  as  that  the  British  have 
themselves  made  war  upon  natives,  as  if  there  were  no  distinction 
between  war  and  massacre,  and  that  the  British  have  put  a  poll-tax 
upon  natives,  which,  if  it  be  reasonable  in  amount,  is  a  perfectly 
just  proceeding  adopted  by  all  Colonial  nations.  Let  the  possessors 
of  the  Free  State  use  this  system,  and  at  the  same  time  restore  the 
freedom  of  trade  by  throwing  open  the  country  to  all,  and  returning 
to  the  natives  that  land  and  produce  which  has  been  taken  from 
them.  When  they  have  done  this  —  and  punished  the  guilty  — 
there  will  be  an  end  of  anti-Congo  agitation.  Beyond  this,  a  large 
part  (nearly  half)  of  the  Congo  Reply  {notes  sur  le  rapport  de  Mr. 
Casement,  de  Dec.  11,  1903),  is  taken  up  by  trying  to  show  that  in 
one  case  of  mutilation  the  injuries  were,  in  truth,  inflicted  by  a  wild 
boar.  There  must  be  many  wild  boars  in  Congo  land,  and  their 
habits  are  of  a  singular  nature.  It  is  not  in  the  Congo  that  these 
boars  are  bred. 


VIII 

KING  Leopold's  commission  and  its  report 

THE  immediate  effect  of  the  publication  as  a  State  paper  of  the 
general  comment  of  Lord  Cromer,  and  of  the  definite  accusa- 
tions of  Consul  Casement,  was  a  demand  both  in  Belgium 
and  in  England  for  an  official  inquiry.  Lord  Landsdowne  stipulated 
that  this  inquiry  should  be  impartial  and  thorough.  It  was  also 
suggested  by  the  British  Government  that  it  should  be  international 
in  character,  and  separated  from  the  local  administration.  Very 
grudgingly  and  under  constant  pressure  the  King  appointed  a  Com- 
mission, but  whittled  down  its  powers  to  such  a  point  that  its  proceed- 
ings must  lose  all  utility.  Such  were  the  terms  that  they  provoked 
remonstrance  from  men  like  M.  A.  J.  Wauters,  the  Belgian  historian 
of  the  Congo  Free  State,  who  protested  in  the  Mouvement  GSogra- 
phique  (August  7th,  1904)  that  such  a  body  could  serve  no  useful 
end.  Finally,  their  functions  were  slightly  increased,  but  they  pos- 
sessed no  punitive  powers  and  were  hampered  in  every  direction  by  the 
terms  of  their  reference. 

The  personnel  of  the  Commission  was  worthy  of  the  importance 
of  the  inquiry.  M.  Janssens,  a  well-known  jurist  of  Belgium,  was 
the  president.  He  impressed  all  who  came  in  contact  with  him  as  a 
man  of  upright  and  sympathetic  character.  Baron  Nisco's  appoint- 
ment was  open  to  criticism,  as  he  was  himself  a  Congo  functionary, 
but  save  for  that  fact  there  was  no  complaint  to  make  against  him. 
Dr.  Schumacher,  a  distinguished  Swiss  lawyer,  was  the  third  Com- 
missioner. The  English  Government  applied  to  have  a  representa- 
tive upon  the  tribunal,  and  with  true  Congo  subtlety  the  request  was 
granted  after  the  three  judges  had  reached  the  Congo.  The  English- 
man, Mr.  Mackie,  hurried  out,  but  was  only  in  time  to  attend  the  last 
three  sittings,  which  were  held  in  the  lower  part  of  the  river,  far  from 
the  notorious  rubber  agents.  It  is  worth  noting  that  on  his  arrival 
he  applied  for  the  minutes  of  the  previous  meetings  and  that  his 
application  was  refused.     In  Belgium  the  evidence  of  the  Commis- 

68 


KING   LEOPOLD'S  •  COMMISSION  AND  ITS  REPORT  69 

sion  has  never  been  published,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  it  never  will 
be.  Fortunately  the  Congo  missionaries  took  copious  notes  of  the 
proceedings  and  of  the  testimony  which  came  immediately  under 
their  own  notice.  It  is  from  their  evidence  that  I  draw  these  accounts. 
If  the  Congo  authorities  contest  the  accuracy  of  those  accounts,  then 
let  them  confute  them  forever  and  put  their  accusers  to  confusion  by 
producing  the  actual  minutes  which  they  hold. 

The  first  sitting  of  any  length  of  which  there  are  records  is  that  at 
Bolobo,  and  extended  from  November  5  th  to  12th,  1904.  The 
veteran,  Mr.  Grenfell,  gave  evidence  at  this  sitting,  and  it  is  useful 
to  summarize  his  views  as  he  was  one  of  the  men  who  held  out  longest 
against  the  condemnation  of  King  Leopold,  and  because  his  early 
utterances  have  been  quoted  as  if  he  were  a  supporter  of  the  system. 
He  expressed  to  the  Commissioners  his  disappointment  at  the  failure 
of  the  Congo  Government  to  realize  the  promises  with  which  it 
inaugurated  its  career.  He  declared  he  could  no  longer  wear  the 
decorations  which  he  had  received  from  the  Sovereign  of  the  Congo 
State.  He  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  ills  the  country  was  suffering 
from  were  due  to  the  haste  of  a  few  men  to  get  rich,  and  to  the  absence 
of  anything  like  a  serious  attempt  to  properly  police  the  country  in 
the  interests  of  the  people.  He  instanced  the  few  judicial  officers,  and 
the  virtual  impossibility  of  a  native  obtaining  justice,  owing  to  wit- 
nesses being  compelled  to  travel  long  distances,  either  to  Leopoldville 
or  Boma.  Mr.  Grenfell  spoke  out  emphatically  against  the  adminis- 
trative regime  on  the  Upper  River,  so  far  as  it  had  been  brought  under 
his  notice. 

Mr.  Scrivener,  a  gentleman  who  had  been  twenty-three  years  on  the 
Congo,  was  the  next  witness.  His  evidence  was  largely  the  same  as 
the  "Diary"  from  which  I  have  already  quoted,  concerning  the  con- 
dition of  the  Crown  Domain.  Many  witnesses  were  examined.  **  How 
do  you  know  the  names  of  the  men  murdered  ?  "  a  lad  was  asked.  * '  One 
of  them  was  my  father,"  was  the  dramatic  reply.  "Men of  stone," 
wrote  Mr.  Scrivener,  "  would  be  moved  by  the  stories  that  are  unfolded 
as  the  Commission  probes  this  awful  history  of  rubber  collection." 

Mr.  Gilchrist,  another  missionary,  was  a  new  witness.  His  testi- 
mony was  concerned  with  the  State  Domain  and  the  Concessionnaire 
area,  principally  on  the  Lulanga  River.    He  said : 

"  I  also  told  them  what  we  had  seen  on  the  Ikelemba,  of  the  signs 
of  desolation  in  all  the  districts,  of  the  heartrending  stories  the  people 


70  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

told  us,  of  the  butcheries  wrought  by  the  various  white  men  of  the 
State  and  companies  who  had,  from  time  to  time,  been  stationed  there 
among  whom  a  few  names  were  notorious.  I  pointed  out  to  them  the 
fact  that  the  basin  of  the  Ikelemba  was  supposed  to  be  free-trade 
territory  also,  but  that  everywhere  the  people  of  the  various  districts 
were  compelled  to  serve  the  companies  of  these  respective  districts, 
in  rubber,  gum  copal  or  food.  At  one  out-of-the-way  place  where 
we  were  on  the  south  bank,  two  men  arrived  just  as  we  were  leaving, 
with  their  bodies  covered  with  marks  of  the  chicotte,  which  they  had 
just  received  from  the  trader  of  Bosci  because  their  quantity  had  been 
short.  I  said  to  the  Commissaire,  given  favourable  conditions,  par- 
ticularly freedom,  there  would  soon  be  a  large  population  in  these 
interior  towns,  the  Ngombe  and  Mongo." 

In  answer  to  questions  the  following  facts  were  solicited: 

"  Unsettled  condition  of  the  people.  The  older  people  never  seem 
to  have  confidence  to  build  their  houses  substantially.  If  they  have 
any  suspicion  of  the  approach  of  a  canoe  or  steamer  with  soldiers 
they  flee. 

^^  Chest  disease,  pneumonia,  etc.  These  carry  off  very  many. 
The  people  flee  to  the  islands,  live  in  the  open  air,  expose  them- 
selves to  all  kinds  of  weather,  contract  chills,  which  are  followed  by 
serious  lung  troubles,  and  die.  For  years  we  never  saw  a  new  house 
because  of  the  drifting  population.  They  have  a  great  fear  of  soldiers. 
In  the  case  of  many  the  absence  from  the  villages  is  temporary;  in 
the  case  of  a  few  they  permanently  settle  on  the  north  bank  of  the  river. 

^^Want  of  proper  nourishment.  I  have  witnessed  the  collecting 
of  the  State  imposition,  and  after  this  was  set  aside  the  natives  had 
nothing  but  leaves  to  eat." 

Also,  that  fines,  which  the  Commission  at  once  declared  to  be 
illegal,  were  constantly  levied  on  the  people,  and  that  these  fines 
had  continued  after  the  matter  had  been  reported  to  the  Governor- 
General.  In  spite  of  this  declaration  of  illegality,  no  steps  were  taken 
in  the  matter,  and  M.  de  Bauw,  the  chief  offender,  was  by  last  accounts 
the  supreme  executive  official  of  the  district.  At  every  turn  one  finds 
that  there  is  no  relation  at  all  between  law  and  practice  in  the  Congo. 
Law  is  habitually  broken  by  every  official  from  the  Governor- General 
downward  if  the  profits  of  the  State  can  be  increased  thereby.  The 
only  stern  enforcement  of  the  laws  is  toward  the  foreigner,  the  Aus- 


KING  LEOPOLD'S  COMMISSION  AND  ITS  REPORT  71 

trian  Rubinck,  or  the  Englishman  Stokes,  who  is  foolish  enough 
to  think  that  an  international  agreement  is  of  more  weight  than  the 
edicts  of  Boma.  These  men  believed  it,  and  met  their  death  through 
their  belief  without  redress,  and  even,  in  the  case  of  the  Austrian,  with- 
out public  remonstrance. 

The  next  considerable  session  of  the  Commission  was  at  Baringa. 
Mr.  Harris  and  Mr.  Stannard,  the  missionaries  at  this  station,  had 
played  a  noble  part  throughout  in  endeavouring  within  their  very 
limited  powers  to  shield  the  natives  from  their  tormentors.  In  both 
cases,  and  also  in  that  of  Mrs.  Harris,  this  had  been  done  at  the 
repeated  risk  of  their  lives.  Their  white  neighbours  of  the  rubber 
factories  made  their  lives  miserable  also  by  preventing  their  receipt 
of  food  from  the  natives,  and  harassing  them  in  various  ways. 
On  one  occasion  a  chief  and  his  son  were  both  murdered  by  the 
order  of  the  white  agent  because  they  had  supplied  the  Harris  house- 
hold with  the  fore-quarter  of  an  antelope.  Before  giving  the  terrible 
testimony  of  the  missionaries  —  a  testimony  which  was  admitted  to  be 
true  by  the  chief  agent  of  the  A.B.I.R.  Company  on  the  spot,  it  would 
be  well  to  show  the  exact  standing  of  this  Corporation  and  its  relation 
to  the  State.  These  relations  are  so  close  that  they  become  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  the  same.  The  State  holds  fifty  per  cent,  of 
the  shares;  it  places  the  Government  soldiers  at  the  company's  dis- 
posal; it  carries  up  in  the  Government  steamers  and  supplies  licenses 
for  the  great  number  of  rifles  and  the  quantity  of  cartridges  which  the 
company  needs  for  its  murderous  work.  Whatever  crimes  are  done 
by  the  company,  the  State  is  a  close  accomplice.  Finally,  the  Euro- 
pean directors  of  this  bloodstained  company  are,  or  were  at  the  time, 
the  Senator  Van  der  Nest,  who  acted  as  President;  and  as  Council: 
Count  John  d'Oultremont,  Grand  Marshal  of  the  Belgian  Court; 
Baron  Dhanis,  of  Congo  fame,  and  M.  van  Eetevelde,  the  creature  of 
the  King,  and  the  writer  of  so  many  smug  despatches  to  the  British 
Government  about  the  mission  of  civilization  and  the  high  purpose 
of  the  Congo  State.  Now  listen  to  some  of  the  testimony  as  con- 
densed by  Mr.  Harris: 

"First,  the  specific  atrocities  during  1904  were  dealt  with,  includ- 
ing men,  women,  and  children ;  then  murders  and  outrages,  including 
cannibalism.  From  this  I  passed  on  to  the  imprisonment  of  men, 
women  and  children.  Following  this  I  called  attention  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Baringa  towns  and  the  partial  fa.mine  among  the  people 


72  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

in  consequence.  Also  the  large  gangs  of  prisoners  —  men,  women 
and  children  —  imprisoned  to  carry  out  this  work;  the  murder  of 
two  men  whilst  it  was  being  done.  Next  followed  the  irregularities 
during  1 903.  The  expedition  conducted  by  an  A.B.I.R.  agent  against 
Samb'ekota,  and  the  arming  continually  of  A.B.I.R.  sentries  with 
Albini  rifles.  Following  this  I  drew  attention  to  the  administration 
of  Mons.  Forcie,  whose  regime  was  a  terrible  one,  including  the 
murder  of  Isekifasu,  the  principal  Chief  of  Bolima;  the  killing, 
cutting  up  and  eating  of  his  wives,  son  and  children ;  the  decorating  of 
the  chief  houses  with  the  intestines,  liver  and  heart  of  some  of  the 
killed,  as  stated  by  'Veritas'  in  the  West  African  Mail. 

"1  confirmed  in  general  the  letter  published  in  the  West  African 
Mail  by  '  Veritas.' 

"Following  this  I  came  to  Mons.  Tagner's  time,  and  stated  that 
no  village  in  this  district  had  escaped  murders  under  this  man's 
regime. 

"Next  we  dealt  with  irregularities  common  to  all  agents,  calling 
attention  to  and  proving  by  specific  instances  the  public  floggings  of 
practically  any  and  every  one;  quoting,  for  instance,  seeing  with 
my  own  eyes  six  Ngombe  men  receive  one  hundred  strokes  each, 
delivered  simultaneously  by  two  sentries. 

"Next,  the  normal  condition  has  always  been  the  imprisoning  of 
men,  women  and  children,  all  herded  together  in  one  shed,  with 
no  arrangement  for  the  demands  of  nature.  Further,  that  very  many, 
including  even  chiefs,  had  died  either  in  prison  or  immediately  on 
their  release. 

"Next,  the  mutilation  of  the  woman  Boaji,  because  she  wished 
to  remain  faithful  to  her  husband,  and  refused  to  subject  herself  to 
the  passions  of  the  sentries.  The  woman's  footless  leg  and  hernia 
testify  to  the  truth  of  her  statement.  She  appeared  before  the  Com- 
mission and  doctor. 

"Next,  the  fact  that  natives  are  imprisoned  for  visiting  friends 
and  relatives  in  other  villages,  and  the  refusal  to  allow  native  canoes 
to  pass  up  and  down  river  without  carrying  a  permit  signed  by  the 
rubber  agent;  pointing  out  that  even  missionaries  are  subject  to  these 
restrictions,  and  publicly  insulted,  in  an  unprintable  manner,  when 
they  do  so. 

"Next  point  dealt  with  was  responsibility  —  maintaining  that 
responsibility  lay  not  so  much  in  the  individual  as  in  the  system. 
The  sentry  blames  the  agent,  he  in  turn  the  director,  and  so  on. 


KING  LEOPOLD'S  COMMISSION  AND  ITS  REPORT  73 

"I  next  called  attention  to  the  difficulties  to  be  faced  by  natives 
in  reporting  irregularities.  The  number  of  civil  officials  is  too  small ; 
the  practical  impossibility  of  reaching  those  that  do  exist  —  the  native 
having  first  to  ask  permission  of  the  rubber  agent. 

"The  relations  that  are  at  present  necessary  between  the  A.B.I.R. 
and  the  State  render  it  highly  improbable  that  the  natives  will  ever 
report  irregularities.  I  then  pointed  out  that  we  firmly  beheve  that 
but  for  us  these  irregularities  would  never  have  come  to  light. 

"Following  on  this  the  difficulties  to  be  faced  by  missionaries  were 
dealt  with,  pointing  out  that  the  A.B.I.R.  can  and  do  impose  on  us 
all  sorts  of  restrictions  if  we  dare  to  speak  a  word  about  their  irregulari- 
ties. I  then  quoted  a  few  of  the  many  instances  which  found  their 
climax  in  Mrs.  Harris  and  I  almost  losing  our  lives  for  daring  to  oppose 
the  massacres  by  Van  Caelcken.  It  was  also  stated  that  we  could  not 
disconnect  the  attitude  of  the  State  in  refusing  us  fresh  sites  with  our 
action  in  condemning  the  administration.  I  then  mentioned  that 
the  forests  are  exhausted  of  rubber,  pointing  out  that  during  a  five 
days'  tour  through  the  forests  I  did  not  see  a  single  vine  of  any  size. 
This  is  solely  because  the  vines  have  been  worked  in  such  a  manner 
that  all  the  rubber  roots  need  many  years'  rest,  whereas  the  natives 
now  are  actually  reduced  to  digging  up  those  roots  in  order  to  get 
rubber. 

"The  next  subject  dealt  with  was  the  clear  violation  both  of  the 
spirit  and  letter  of  the  Berlin  Act.  In  the  first  place  we  are  not 
allowed  to  extend  the  Mission,  and,  further,  we  are  forbidden  to  trade 
even  for  food. 

"Next  the  statement  was  made  that,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  no 
single  sentry  had  ever  been  punished  by  the  State  till  1904  for  the  many 
murders  committed  in  this  district. 

"I  next  pointed  out  that  one  reason  why  the  natives  object  to 
paddle  for  the  A.B.I.R.  is  because  of  the  sentries  who  travel  in  the 
A.B.I.R.  canoes,  and  whose  only  business  is  to  flog  the  paddlers  in 
order  to  keep  them  going. 

"After  Mr.  Stannard  had  been  heard,  sixteen  Esanga  witnesses 
were  questioned  one  by  one.  They  gave  clearly  the  details  of  how 
father,  mother,  brother,  sister,  son  or  daughter  were  killed  in  cold 
blood  for  rubber.  These  sixteen  represented  over  twenty  murders  in 
Esanga  alone.  Then  followed  the  big  chief  of  all  Bolima,  who  suc- 
ceeded Isekifasu  (murdered  by  the  A.B.I.R.).  What  a  sight  for 
those  who  prate  about  lying  missionaries!    He  stood  boldly  before 


74  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

all,  pointed  to  his  twenty  witnesses,  placed  on  the  table  his  one 
hundred  and  ten  twigs,  each  twig  representing  a  life  for  rubber. 
'  These  are  chiefs'  twigs,  these  are  men's,  these  shorter  are  women's, 
these  smaller  still  are  children's.'  He  gives  the  names  of  scores,  but 
begs  for  permission  to  call  his  son  as  a  reminder.  The  Commission, 
though,  is  satisfied  with  him,  that  he  is  telling  the  truth,  and  there- 
fore say  that  it  is  unnecessary.  He  tells  how  his  beard  of  many 
years'  growth,  and  which  nearly  reached  his  feet,  was  cut  off  by  a 
rubber  agent,  merely  because  he  visited  a  friend  in  another  town. 
Asked  if  he  had  not  killed  A.B.I.R.  sentries,  he  denied  it,  but  owned 
to  his  people  spearing  three  of  the  sentry's  boys.  He  tells  how  the 
white  man  fought  him,  and  when  the  fight  was  over  handed  him  his 
corpses,  and  said:  'Now  you  will  bring  rubber,  won't  you?'  To 
which  he  replied:  'Yes.'  The  corpses  were  cut  up  and  eaten  by 
Mons.  Forcie's  fighters.  He  also  told  how  he  had  been  chicotted 
and  imprisoned  by  the  A.B.I.R.  agent,  and  further  put  to  the  most 
menial  labour  by  the  agent. 

"Here  Bonkoko  came  forward  and  told  how  he  accompanied  the 
A.B.I.R.  sentries  when  they  went  to  murder  Isekifasu  and  his  wives 
and  little  ones;  of  finding  them  peacefully  sitting  at  their  evening 
meal;  of  the  killing  as  many  as  they  could,  also  the  cutting  up  and 
eating  of  the  bodies  of  Isekifasu's  son  and  his  father's  wives;  of  how 
they  dashed  the  baby's  brains  out,  cut  the  body  in  half,  and  impaled 
the  halves. 

"Again  he  tells  how,  on  their  return,  Mons.  Forcie  had  the 
sentries  chicotted  because  they  had  not  killed  enough  of  the  Bohma 
people. 

"Next  came  Bongwalanga,  and  confirmed  Bonkoko's  story;  this 
youth  went  to  'look  on.'  After  this  the  mutilated  wife  of  Lomboto, 
of  Ekerongo,  was  carried  by  a  chief,  who  showed  her  footless  leg  and 
hernia.  This  was  the  price  she  had  to  pay  for  remaining  faithful 
to  her  husband.  The  husband  told  how  he  was  chicotted  because  he 
was  angry  about  his  wife's  mutilation. 

"Then  Longoi,  of  Lotoko,  placed  eighteen  twigs  on  the  table, 
representing  eighteen  men,  women  and  children  murdered  for  rub- 
ber. Next,  Iriunga  laid  thirty-four  twigs  on  the  table  and  told  how 
thirty-four  of  his  men,  women  and  children  had  been  murdered  at 
Ekerongo.  He  admits  that  they  had  speared  one  sentry,  Iloko, 
but  that,  as  in  every  other  such  instance,  was  because  Iloko  had  first 
killed  their  people.    Lomboto  shows  his  mutilated  wrist  and  useless 


KING  LEOPOLD'S  COMMISSION  AND  ITS  REPORT  75 

hand,  done  by  the  sentry.  Isekansu  shows  his  stump  of  a  forearm, 
telling  the  same  pitiful  story.  Every  witness  tells  of  floggings,  rape, 
mutilations,  murders,  and  of  imprisonments  of  men,  women  and 
children,  and  of  illegal  fines  and  irregular  taxes,  etc.,  etc.  The 
Commission  endeavours  to  get  through  this  slough  of  iniquity  and 
river  of  blood,  but  finding  it  hopeless,  asks  how  much  longer  I  can  go 
on.  I  tell  them  I  can  go  on  until  they  are  satisfied  that  hundreds  of 
murders  have  been  committed  by  the  A.B.I.R.  in  this  district  alone; 
murders  of  chiefs,  men,  women  and  little  children,  and  that 
multitudes  of  witnesses  only  await  my  signal  to  appear  by  the 
thousand. 

''I  further  point  out  that  we  have  only  considered  about  two  hun- 
dred murders  from  the  villages  of  Bolima,  Esanga,  Ekerongo,  Lotoko ; 
that  by  far  the  greater  majority  still  remain.  The  following  districts 
are  as  yet  untouched:  Bokri,  Nson-go,  Boru-ga,  Ekala,  Baringa, 
Linza,  Lifindu,  Nsongo-Mboyo,  Livoku,  Boendo,  the  Lomako  river, 
the  Ngombe  country,  and  many  others,  all  of  whom  have  the  same 
tale  to  tell.  Every  one  saw  the  hopelessness  of  trying  to  investigate 
things  fully.  To  do  so,  the  Commission  would  have  to  stay  here  for 
months." 

What  comment  can  be  added  to  such  evidence  as  this!  It  stands 
in  its  naked  horror,  and  it  is  futile  to  try  to  make  it  more  vivid.  What 
can  any  of  those  English  apologists  of  the  Congo  who  have  thrown 
a  doubt  upon  the  accounts  of  outrages  because  in  passing  through  a 
section  of  this  huge  country  upon  a  flying  visit  they  had  not  happened 
to  see  them  —  what  can  Lord  Mountmorris,  Captain  Boyd  Alexander, 
or  Mrs.  French  Sheldon  say  in  the  face  of  a  mass  of  evidence  with  the 
actual  mutilated  hmbs  and  excoriated  backs  to  enforce  it  ?  Can  they 
say  more  than  the  man  actually  incriminated,  M.  Le  Jeune,  the  chief 
agent  at  the  spot?  "What  have  you  to  say?"  asked  the  President. 
M.  Le  Jeune  shrugged  his  shoulders.  He  had  nothing  to  say.  The 
President,  who  had  listened,  to  his  honour  be  it  spoken,  with  tears 
running  down  his  cheeks  to  some  of  the  evidence,  cried  out  in  amaze- 
ment and  disgust.  "There  is  one  document  I  would  put  in,"  said 
the  agent.  "It  is  to  show  that  142  of  my  sentinels  were  slain  by  the 
villagers  in  the  course  of  seven  months."  "Surely  that  makes  the 
matter  worse  I "  cried  the  sagacious  judge.  "If  these  well-armed  men 
were  slain  by  the  defenceless  villagers,  how  terrible  must  the  wrongs 
have  been  which  caUed  for  such  desperate  reprisals!" 


76  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

You  will  ask  what  was  done  with  this  criminal  agent,  a  man  whose 
deeds  merited  the  heaviest  punishment  that  human  law  could  bestow. 
Nothing  whatever  was  done  to  him.  He  was  allowed  to  slip  out  of 
the  country  exactly  as  Captain  Lothaire,  in  similar  circumstances,  was 
allowed  to  slip  from  the  country.  An  insignificant  agent  may  be 
occasionally  made  an  example  of,  but  to  punish  the  local  manager  of 
a  great  company  would  be  to  lessen  the  output  of  rubber,  and  what 
are  morality  and  justice  compared  to  that? 

Why  should  one  continue  with  the  testimony  given  before  the 
Commission  ?  Their  wanderings  covered  a  little  space  of  the  country 
and  were  confined  to  the  main  river,  but  everywhere  they  ehcited  the 
same  tale  of  slavery,  mutilation,  and  murder.  What  Scrivener  and 
Grenfell  said  at  Bolobo  was  what  Harris  and  Stannard  said  at  Baringa, 
what  Gilchrist  said  at  Lulanga,  what  Rushin  and  Gamman  said  at 
Bongadanga,  what  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lower  said  at  Ikan,  what  Padfield 
said  at  Bonginda,  what  Weeks  said  at  Monscombe.  The  place 
varied,  but  the  results  of  the  system  were  ever  the  same.  Here  and 
there  were  human  touches  which  lingered  in  the  memory;  here  and 
there  also  episodes  of  horror  which  stood  out  even  in  that  universal 
Golgotha.  One  lad  testified  that  he  had  lost  every  relative  in  the 
world,  male  or  female,  all  murdered  for  rubber.  As  his  father  lay 
dying  he  had  given  him  the  charge  of  two  infant  brothers  and  enjoined 
him  to  guard  them  tenderly.  He  had  cared  for  them  until  he  had  been 
compelled  at  last  to  go  himself  into  the  forest  to  gather  the  rubber. 
One  week  their  quantity  had  been  short.  When  he  returned  from 
the  wood  the  village  had  been  raided  in  his  absence,  and  he  found 
his  two  little  brothers  lying  disembowelled  across  a  log.  The  com- 
pany, however,  paid  200  per  cent. 

Four  natives  had  been  tortured  until  they  cried  out  for  some  one 
to  bring  a  gun  and  shoot  them. 

The  chiefs  died  because  their  hearts  were  broken.  ^ 

Mr.  Gamman  knew  no  village  where  it  took  them  less  than  ten 
days  out  of  fifteen  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  A.B.I.R.  As  a  rule, 
the  people  had  four  days  in  a  month  to  themselves.  By  law  the 
maximum  of  forced  labour  was  forty  hours  in  a  month.  But,  as  I 
have  said,  there  is  no  relation  at  all  between  law  and  practice  in  the 
Congo. 

One  witness  appeared  with  a  string  knotted  in  forty-two  places,  and 
with  a  packet  of  fifty  leaves.  Each  knot  represented  a  murder  and 
each  leaf  a  rope  in  his  native  village. 


KING  LEOPOLD'S  COMMISSION  AND  ITS  REPORT  77 

The  son  of  a  murdered  chief  took  the  body  of  his  father  (all 
names,  dates  and  place  specified)  to  show  it  to  the  white 
agent,  in  the  hope  of  justice.  The  agent  called  his  dog 
and  set  it  on  him,  the  dog  biting  the  son  on  the  leg  as  he  carried 
the  corpse  of  his  father. 

The  villagers  brought  their  murdered  men  to  M.  Spelier,  director 
of  the  La  Lulanga  Company.  He  accused  them  of  lying  and  ordered 
them  off. 

One  chief  was  seized  by  two  white  agents,  one  of  whom  held  him 
while  the  other  beat  him.  When  they  had  finished  they  kicked 
him  to  make  him  get  up,  but  the  man  was  dead.  The  Commission 
examined  ten  witnesses  in  their  investigation  of  this  story.  The 
chief  was  Jonghi,  the  village  Bogeka,  the  date  October,  1904. 

Such  is  a  fractional  sample  of  the  evidence  which  was  laid  before 
the  Commission,  corroborated  by  every  detail  of  name,  place  and  date 
which  could  enforce  conviction.  There  is  no  doubt  that  it  did  enforce 
thorough  conviction.  The  judges  travelled  down  the  river  sadder  and 
wiser  men.  When  they  reached  Boma,  they  had  an  interview  with 
Governor- General  Constermann.  What  passed  at  that  interview 
has  not  been  published,  but  the  Governor- General  went  forth  from 
it  and  cut  his  own  throat.  The  fact  may,  perhaps,  give  some 
indication  of  how  the  judges  felt  when  the  stories  were  still 
fresh  in  their  minds,  and  their  nerves  wincing  under  the  horror 
of  the  evidence. 

A  whole  year  elapsed  between  the  starting  of  the  Commission  and 
the  presentation  of  their  Report,  which  was  published  upon  October 
31st,  1905.  The  evidence  which  would  have  stirred  Europe  to  its 
foundations  was  never  published  at  all,  in  spite  of  an  informal  assur- 
ance to  Lord  Lansdowne  that  nothing  would  be  held  back.  Only 
the  conclusions  saw  the  light,  without  the  document  upon  which  they 
were  founded. 

The  effect  of  that  Report,  when  stripped  of  its  courtly  phrases, 
was  an  absolute  confirmation  of  all  that  had  been  said  by  so  many 
witnesses  during  so  many  years.  It  is  easy  to  blame  the  Commis- 
sioners for  not  having  the  full  courage  of  their  convictions,  but  their 
position  was  full  of  difficulty.  The  Report  was  really  a  personal  one. 
The  State  was,  as  no  one  knew  better  than  themselves,  a  fiction.  It 
was  the  King  who  had  sent  them,  and  it  was  to  the  King  himself 
that  they  were  reporting  upon  a  matter  which  deeply  affected  his  per- 
sonal honour  as  weU  as  his  material  interests.    Had  they  been,  as 


78  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

had  been  suggested,  an  international  body,  the  matter  would  have 
been  simple.  But  of  the  three  good  care  had  been  taken  that  two 
should  be  men  who  would  have  to  answer  for  what  was  said.  Mr. 
Janssens  was  a  more  or  less  independent  man,  but  a  Belgian,  and  a 
subject  all  the  same.  Baron  Nisco  was  in  the  actual  employ  of  the 
King,  and  his  future  was  at  stake.  On  the  whole,  I  think  that  the 
Commissioners  acted  like  brave  and  honest  men. 

Naturally  they  laid  all  stress  upon  what  could  be  said  in  favour 
of  the  King  and  his  creation.  They  would  have  been  more  than 
human  had  they  not  done  so.  They  enlarged  upon  the  size  and  the 
traffic  of  the  cities  at  the  mouth  of  the  Congo  —  as  if  the  whole  loot 
of  a  nation  could  pass  down  a  river  without  causing  commerce  and 
riches  at  its  mouth.  Very  early  in  the  Report  they  indicated  that  the 
question  of  the  State  appropriation  of  the  land  had  forced  itself  upon 
their  notice.  ''If  the  State  wishes  to  avoid  the  principle  of  the  State 
appropriation  of  vacant  lands  resulting  in  abuse,"  says  the  Report, 
"it  should  place  its  agents  and  officials  on  their  guard  against  too 
restrictive  interpretation  and  too  rigorous  applications."  Weak 
and  trimming,  it  is  true,  but  it  was  the  cornerstone  of  all  that  the 
King  had  built,  and  how  were  they  to  knock  it  rudely  out?  Their 
attitude  was  not  heroic.     But  it  was  natural.    They  go  on; 

"As  the  greater  portion  of  the  land  in  the  Congo  is  not  under 
cultivation,  this  interpretation  concedes  to  the  State  A  right  of 

ABSOLUTE  AND  EXCLUSIVE  OWNERSHIP  OVER  VIRTUALLY  THE  WHOLE 
OF  THE  LAND,  WITH  THIS  CONSEQUENCE :  THAT  IT  CAN  DISPOSE  — 
ITSELF  AND  SOLELY  —  OF  ALL  THE  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  SOIL;  PROSE- 
CUTE AS  A  POACHER  ANY  ONE  WHO  TAKES  FROM  THAT  LAND  THE  LEAST 
OF  ITS  FRUITS,  OR  AS  A  RECEIVER  OF  STOLEN  GOODS  ANY  ONE  WHO 
RECEIVES  SUCH  FRUIT:  FORBID  ANY  ONE  TO  ESTABLISH  HIMSELF  ON 
THE  GREATER  PART  OF  THE  TERRITORY.  ThE  ACTIVITY  OF  THE 
NATIVES  IS  THUS  LIMITED  TO  VERY  RESTRICTED  AREAS,  AND  THEIR 
ECONOMIC  CONDITION  IS  IMMOBILIZED.  ThUS  ABUSIVELY  APPLIED, 
SUCH  LEGISLATION  WOULD  PREVENT  ANY  DEVELOPMENT  OF  NATIVE 
LIFE.  In  this  MANNER,  NOT  ONLY  HAS  THE  NATIVE  BEEN  OFTEN 
FORBIDDEN  TO  SHIFT  HIS  VILLAGE,  BUT  HE  HAS  EVEN  BEEN  FOR- 
BIDDEN TO  VISIT,  EVEN  TEMPORARILY,  A  NEIGHBOURING  VILLAGE 
WITHOUT  SPECIAL  PERMIT.  A  NATIVE  DISPLACING  HIMSELF  WITHOUT 
BEING  THE  BEARER  OF  SUCH  AN  AUTHORIZATION,  WOULD  LEAVE 
HIMSELF  OPEN  TO  ARREST,  TO  BE  TAKEN  BACK  AND  EVJiN  PUNISHED," 


KING  LEOPOLD'S  COMMISSION  AND  ITS  REPORT  79 

Who  could  possibly  deny,  after  reading  this  passage,  that  the 
Congo  native  has  been  reduced  from  freedom  into  slavery?  There 
follows  a  curious  sentence: 

"Let  us  hasten,"  says  the  Report,  "to  say  that  in  actual  fact  so  great 
a  rigour  has  not  been  shown.  Almost  everywhere  certain  products 
OF  THE  DOMAIN  have  been  abandoned  to  the  natives,  notably  palm 
kernels,  which  form  the  object  of  an  important  export  trade  in  the 
Lower  Congo." 

This  palm  kernel  trade  is  an  old-established  one,  affecting  only  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  which  could  not  be  disturbed  without  obvious 
international  complications,  and  which  bears  no  relation  to  the  great 
Upper  Congo  populations,  whose  inhuman  treatment  was  the  question 
at  issue. 

The  Report  then  proceeds  to  point  out  very  clearly,  the  all-important 
fact  which  arises  from  the  expropriation  of  the  native  from  the  land. 
"Apart  from  the  rough  plantations,"  it  says,  "which  barely  suffice, 
to  feed  the  natives  themselves  and  to  supply  the  stations,  all  the  fruits 
of  the  soil  are  considered  as  the  property  of  the  State  or  of  the  Con- 
cessionnaire  societies."  This  being  so,  there  is  an  end  forever  of  free 
trade,  or,  indeed,  of  any  trade,  save  an  export  by  the  Government 
itself,  or  by  a  handful  of  companies  which  really  represent  the  Govern- 
ment, of  the  whole  wealth  of  the  country  to  Europe  for  the  benefit  of 
a  ring  of  millionaires. 

Having  dealt  with  the  taking  of  the  land  and  the  taking  of  its 
products,  the  Commission  handles  with  kid  gloves  the  third  great 
root  proposition,  the  forcing  of  the  natives,  for  nothing,  under  the 
name  of  taxes,  for  trifles  under  the  absurd  name  of  trade,  to  work  for 
the  sake  of  their  oppressors.  It  expends  many  words  in  showing  that 
natives  do  not  like  work,  and  that,  therefore,  compulsion  is  necessary. 
It  is  sad  to  see  just  and  learned  men  driven  to  such  straits  in  defend- 
ing what  is  indefensible.  Do  the  blacks  of  the  Rand  gold  mines  like 
work?  Do  the  Kimberley  diamond  hunters  like  work?  Do  the 
carriers  of  an  East  German  caravan  like  work  ?  No  more  than  the 
Congolese.  Why,  then,  do  they  work  ?  Because  they  are  paid  a  fair 
wage  to  do  so.  Because  the  money  earned  by  their  work  can  bring 
them  more  pleasure  than  the  work  does  pain.  That  is  the  law  of 
work  the  whole  world  over.  Notably  it  is  the  law  on  the  Congo 
itself,  where  the  missionaries,  who  pay  honestly  for  work,  have  no 
difficulty  in  getting  it.     Of  course,  the  Congolese,  like  the  English- 


8o  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

man,  or  the  Belgian,  does  not  like  work  when  it  is  work  which  brings 
a  benefit  to  others  and  none  to  himself. 

But  in  spite  of  this  preamble,  the  Commission  cannot  escape  the 
actual  facts. 

"Numbers  of  agents  only  thought  of  one  thing:    to  obtain  as 

MUCH    AS    POSSIBLE    EST    THE    SHORTEST    POSSIBLE    TIME,    and    their 

demands  were  often  excessive.    This  is  not  at  all  astonishing, 

AT  ANY  RATE  AS  REGARDS  THE  GATHERING  OF  THE  PRODUCE  OF 
THE  DOMAIN.   .   .   . 

that  is  to  say,  the  revenues  for  Government; 
For  the  agents  themselves  who  regulated  the  tax  and  saw 

TO  ITS  collection,  HAD  A  DIRECT  INTEREST  IN  INCREASING  ITS 
AMOUNT,  SINCE  THEY  RECEIVED  PROPORTIONAL  BONUSES  ON  THE 
PRODUCE  THUS  COLLECTED," 

No  more  definite  statement  could  be  made  of  the  system  which 
had  been  attacked  by  the  Reformers  and  denied  by  the  Congo  officials 
for  so  many  years.  The  Report  then  goes  on  to  tell  that  when  the 
State,  in  one  of  those  pretended  reforms  which  were  meant  for  Euro- 
pean, not  for  Congolese,  use,  allotted  forty  hours  of  forced  labour  per 
month  as  the  amount  which  the  native  owed  the  State,  the  announce- 
ment was  accompanied  by  a  private  intimation  from  the  Governor- 
General  to  the  District  Commissioners,  dated  February  23rd,  1904, 
that  this  new  law  must  have  the  effect,  not  of  lessening,  but  "  of  bring- 
ing about  a  constant  increase  in  the  resources  of  the  Treasury." 
Could  they  be  told  in  plainer  terms  that  they  were  to  disregard  it  ? 

The  land  is  taken,  the  produce  is  taken,  the  labour  is  taken.  In  old 
days  the  African  slave  was  exported,  but  we  progress  with  the  ages 
and  now  a  higher  intelligence  has  shown  the  folly  of  the  old-fashioned 
methods  when  it  is  to  easy  to  enslave  him  in  his  own  home. 

We  may  pass  the  Report  of  the  Commission  in  so  far  as  it  deals 
with  the  taxation  of  the  natives,  food  taxes,  porterage  taxes  and  other 
imposts.  It  brings  out  very  clearly  the  curse  of  the  parasitic  army, 
with  their  families,  which  have  to  be  fed  by  the  natives,  and  the 
difficulty  which  it  causes  them  with  their  limited  plantations  to  find 
the  means  for  feeding  themselves.  Even  the  wood  to  the  State 
steamers  is  not  paid  for,  but  is  taken  as  a  tax.  Such  demands  "  force 
the  natives  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  stations  in  certain  cases  to 
an  almost  continuous  labour"  —  a  fresh  admission  of  slave  condi- 


KING  LEOPOLD'S  COMMISSION  AND  ITS  REPORT  8i 

tions.  The  Report  dtbcribes  the  result  of  the  rubber  tax  in  the 
following  terms: 

"This  circumstance  [exhaustion  of  the  rubber]  explains  the  repug- 
nance of  the  native  for  rubber  work,  which  in  itself  is  not  particularly 
painful.  In  the  majority  of  cases  the  native  must  go  one  or  two 
days'  march  every  fortnight,  until  he  arrives  at  that  part  of  the 
forest  where  the  rubber  vines  can  be  met  with  in  a  certain  degree  of 
abundance.    There  the  collector  passes  a  number  of  days  m  a 

MISERABLE  EXISTENCE.  He  HAS  TO  BUILD  HIMSELF  AN  IMPROVISED 
SHELTER,  WHICH  CANNOT,  OBVIOUSLY,  REPLACE  HIS  HUT.  He  HAS 
NOT  THE  FOOD  TO  WHICH  HE  IS  ACCUSTOMED.  He  IS  DEPRIVED 
OF  HIS  WIFE,  EXPOSED  TO  THE  INCLEMENCIES  OF  THE  WEATHER  AND 
THE  ATTACKS  OF  WILD  BEASTS.  WhEN  ONCE  HE  HAS  COLLECTED 
THE  RUBBER  HE  MUST  BRING  IT  TO  THE  StATE  STATION  OR  TO  THAT 

OF  THE  Company,  and  only  then  can  he  return  to  his  village, 

WHERE  HE  CAN  SOJOURN  FOR  BARELY  MORE  THAN  TWO  OR  THREE 
DAYS,    BECAUSE    THE    NEXT    DEMAND    IS    UPON    HIM.      .      .      .      It    is 

hardly  necessary  to  add  that  this  state  of  affairs  is  A  flagrant 

VIOLATION    OF    THE    FORTY    HOURS'    LAW." 

The  Report  deals  finally  with  the  question  of  the  punishments 
meted  out  by  the  State.  These  it  enumerates  as  "the  taking  of 
hostages,  the  imprisonment  of  the  chiefs,  the  institution  of  sentries 
or  capitas,  fines  and  military  expeditions,"  the  latter  being  a  euphem- 
ism for  cold-blooded  massacres.     It  continues: 

"Whatever  one  may  think  of  native  ideas,  acts  such  as  taking 
women  as  hostages  outrage  too  much  our  ideas  of  justice  to  be 
tolerated.  The  State  has  prohibited  this  practice  long  ago,  but  with- 
out being  able  to  suppress  it." 

The  State  prohibits,  but  the  State  not  only  condones,  but  actually 
commands  it  by  private  circular.  Again  the  gap  which  lies  betwixt 
law  and  fact  where  the  interest  of  gain  is  concerned. 

"It  was  barely  denied,"  the  Report  continues,  "that  in  the  various 
posts  of  the  A.B.I.R.  which  we  visited,  the  imprisonment  of  women 
hostages,  the  subjection  of  the  chiefs  to  servile  labour,  the  humilia- 
tions meted  out  to  them,  the  flogging  of  rubber  collectors,  the  brutality 
of  the  black  employes  set  over  the  prisoners,  were  the  rule  commonly 
followed." 


82  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

Then  follows  an  illuminative  passage  about  the  sentries,  capitas 
or  "forest  guards,"  or  messengers,  as  they  are  alternatively  called. 
It  is  a  wonder  that  they  were  not  called  hospital  orderlies  in  the  efforts 
to  make  them  seem  inoffensive.  What  they  actually  were  was,  as 
we  have  seen,  some  twenty  thousand  cannibals  armed  with  Albini 
repeating  rifles.    The  Report  says: 

"This  system  of  native  supervisors  {surveillants)  has  given  rise 
to  numerous  criticisms,  even  on  the  part  of  State  officials.  The 
Protestant  missionaries  heard  at  Bolobo,  Ikoko  (Lake  Mantumba), 
Lulonga,  Bonginda,  Ikau,  Baringa  and  Bongandanga,  drew  up 
formidable  accusations  against  the  acts  of  these  intermediaries. 
They  brought  before  the  Commission  a  multitude  of  native 

WITNESSES,  WHO  REVEALED  A  LARGE  NUMBER  OF  CRIMES  and  eXCeSSCS 

alleged  to  have  been  committed  by  the  sentinels.  According  to  the 
witnesses  these  auxiliaries,  especially  those  stationed  in  the  villages, 
abuse  the  authority  conferred  upon  them,  convert  themselves  into 

DESPOTS,  CLAIMING  THE  WOMEN  AND  THE  FOOD,  NOT  ONLY  FOR 
THEMSELVES  BUT  FOR  THE  BODY  OF  PARASITES  AND  CREATURES  WITH- 
OUT ANY  CALLING  WHICH  A  LOVE  OF  RAPINE  CAUSES  TO  BECOME 
ASSOCIATED  WITH  THEM,  AND  WITH  WHOM  THEY  SURROUND  THEM- 
SELVES AS  WITH  A  VERITABLE  BODYGUARD;  THEY  KILL  WITHOUT 
PITY  ALL  THOSE  WHO  ATTEMPT  TO  RESIST  THEIR  EXIGENCIES  AND 

WHIMS.  The  Commission  was  obviously  unable  in  all  cases  to  verify 
the  exactitude  of  the  allegations  made  before  it,  the  more  so  that 
the  facts  were  often  several  years  old.    However,  truth  of  the 

CHARGES  IS  BORNE  OUT  BY  A  MASS  OF  EVIDENCE  AND  OFFICIAL 
REPORTS." 

It  adds: 

"Of  how   MANY  ABUSES   HAVE  THESE  NATIVE   SENTINELS  BEEN 

guilty  it  would  be  impossible  to  say,  even  approximately. 
Several  chiefs  of  Baringa  brought  us,  according  to  the 
native  custom,  bundles  of  sticks,  each  of  which  was  meant 

TO  SHOW  ONE  OF  THEIR  SUBJECTS  KILLED  BY  THE  CAPITAS.  OnE 
OF  THEM  SHOWED  I20  MURDERS  IN  HIS  VILLAGE  COMMITTED  DUR- 
ING THE  LAST  FEW  YEARS.  Whatever  one  may  think  of  the  confidence 
with  which  this  native  form  of  book-keeping  may  inspire  one,  a 
document  handed  to  the  Commission  by  the  Director  of  the  A.B.I.R. 
does  not  allow  any  doubt  to  remain  as  to  the  sinister  character  of  the 


KING  LEOPOLD'S  COMMISSION  AND  ITS  REPORT  83 

system.  It  consisted  of  a  list  showing  that  from  ist  January  to  ist 
August,  1905  —  that  is  to  say,  within  a  space  of  seven  months  —  142 
sentries  of  the  Society  had  been  killed  or  wounded  by  the  natives. 
Now,  it  is  to  be  assumed  that  in  many  cases  these  sentries  had  been 
attacked  by  the  natives  by  way  of  revenge.  One  may  judge  by  this 
of  the  number  of  bloody  affrays  to  which  their  presence  had  given  rise. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  agents  interrogated  by  the  Com- 
mission, OR  WHO  WERE  PRESENT  AT  THE  AUDIENCES,  DID  NOT  EVEN 
attempt  to  DENY  THE  CHARGES  BROUGHT  AGAINST  THE  SENTINELS." 

That  last  sentence  seems  the  crown  of  the  arch.  If  the  agents 
on  the  spot  did  not  attempt  before  the  Commission  to  deny  the 
outrages  who  shall  venture  to  do  it  in  their  name  ? 

The  remainder  of  the  Report,  though  stuffed  with  courtly  platitudes 
and  with  vague  recommendations  of  reform  which  are  absolutely 
unpractical,  so  long  as  the  root  causes  of  all  the  trouble  remain 
undisturbed,  contains  a  few  positive  passages  which  are  worth  pre- 
serving. Talking  of  the  want  of  definite  instructions  to  military 
expeditions,  it  says: 

"The  consequences  are  often  very  murderous.  And  one  must 
not  be  astonished.  If  in  the  course  of  these  delicate  opera- 
tions, WHOSE  object  it  IS  TO  SEIZE  HOSTAGES  AND  TO  INTIMIDATE 

THE  NATIVES,  Constant  watch  cannot  be  exercised  over  the  san- 
guinary instincts  of  the  soldiers  when  orders  to  punish  are  given  by 
superior  authority,  it  is  difficult  that  the  expedition  should  not 
degenerate  into  massacres,  accompanied  by  pillage  and  incendiarism." 

Again: 

"The  responsibility  for  these  abuses  must  not,  however,  always 
be  placed  upon  the  commanders  of  military  expeditions.  In  con- 
sidering these  facts  one  must  bear  in  mind  the  deplorable  confu- 
sion still  existing  in  the  Upper  Congo  between  a  state  of  war  and  a 
state  of  peace;  between  administration  and  repression;  between  those 
who  may  be  regarded  as  enemies  and  those  who  have  the  right  to  be 
regarded  as  citizens  of  the  State  and  treated  in  accordance  with  its 
laws.  The  Commission  was  struck  with  the  general  tone  of  the 
reports  relating  to  operations  described  above.  Often,  while  admit- 
ting that  the  expedition  had  been  sent  out  solely  for  shortage 

IN  TAXATION,  AND  WITHOUT  MAKING  ALLUSION  TO  AN  ATTACK  OR 
resistance  ON  the  part  OF  THE  NATIVES,   WHICH  ALONE    WOULD 


84  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

JUSTIFY  THE  USE  OF  ARMS,  the  authors  of  these  reports  speak  of 
'surprising  villages,'  'energetic  pursuit,'  'numerous  enemies 
killed  and  wounded,'  'loot,'  'prisoners  of  war,'  'conditions 
OF  PEACE.'  Evidently  these  officers  thought  themselves  at  war,  acted 
as  though  at  war." 

Again: 

"The  course  of  such  expeditions  grave  abuses  have  occurred; 
men,  women  and  children  have  been  killed  even  at  the  very 
time  they  sought  safety  in  flight.  Others  have  been 
imprisoned.    Women  have  been  taken  as  hostages." 

There  is  an  interesting  passage  about  the  missionaries : 

"Often  also,  in  the  regions  where  evangelical  stations  are  estab- 
lished, the  native,  instead  of  going  to  the  magistrate,  his  natural 
protector,  adopts  the  habit  when  he  thinks  he  has  a  grievance  against 
an  agent  or  an  Executive  officer,  to  confide  in  the  missionary.  The 
latter  listens  to  him,  helps  him  according  to  his  means,  and  makes 
himself  the  echo  of  all  the  complaints  of  a  region.  Hence  the  astound- 
ing influence  which  the  missionaries  possess  in  some  parts  of  the 
territory.  It  exercises  itself  not  only  among  the  natives  within  the 
purview  of  their  religious  propaganda,  but  over  all  the  villages  whose 
troubles  they  have  listened  to.  The  missionary  becomes,  for  the 
native  of  the  region,  the  only  representative  of  equity  and  justice; 
he  adds  to  the  ascendancy  acquired  from  his  religious  zeal,  the 
prestige  which,  in  the  interest  of  the  State  itself,  should  be  invested 
in  the  magistrates." 

I  will  now  turn  for  a  moment  to  contemplate  the  document  as 
a  whole. 

With  the  characteristic  policy  of  the  Congo  authorities,  it  was 
originally  given  to  the  world  as  being  a  triumphant  vindication  of 
King  Leopold's  administration,  which  would  certainly  have  been  the 
greatest  whitewashing  contract  ever  yet  carried  through  upon  this 
planet.  Looked  at  more  closely,  it  is  clearly  seen  that  behind  the 
veil  of  courtly  phrase  and  complimentary  forms,  every  single  thing  that 
the  Reformers  have  been  claiming  has  been  absolutely  established. 
That  the  land  has  been  taken.  That  the  produce  has  been  taken. 
That  the  people  are  enslaved.  That  they  are  reduced  to  misery.  That 
the  white  agents  have  given  the  capitas  a  free  hand  against  them. 


KING  LEOPOLD'S  COMMISSION  AND  ITS  REPORT  85 

That  there  have  been  illegal  holdings  of  hostages,  predatory  expedi- 
tions, murders  and  mutilations.  All  these  things  are  absolutely 
admitted.  I  do  not  know  that  anything  more  has  ever  been  claimed, 
save  that  the  Commission  talks  coldly  of  what  a  private  man  must  talk 
of  hotly,  and  that  the  Commission  might  give  the  impression  that  they 
were  isolated  acts,  whereas  the  evidence  here  given  and  the  general 
depopulation  of  the  country  show  that  they  are  general,  universal,  and 
parts  of  a  single  system  extending  from  Leopoldville  to  the  Great 
Lakes,  and  from  the  French  border  to  Katanga.  Be  it  private 
domain,  crown  domain,  or  Concessionnaire  territory,  be  it  land  of 
the  Kasai,  the  Anversoise,  the  Abir,  or  the  Katanga  companies,  the 
tale  still  tells  of  bloodshed  and  horror. 

Where  the  Commission  differs  from  the  Reformers  is  in  their 
estimate  of  the  gravity  of  this  situation  and  of  the  need  of  absolute 
radical  reforms.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  of  the  three  judges 
two  had  never  been  in  Africa  before,  while  the  third  was  a  direct 
servant  of  the  attacked  institution.  They  seem  to  have  vaguely 
felt  that  these  terrible  facts  were  necessary  phases  of  Colonial  expan- 
sion. Had  they  travelled,  as  I  have  done,  in  British  West  Africa, 
and  had  it  been  brought  home  to  them  that  a  blow  to  a  black  man, 
Sierra  Leone,  for  example,  would  mean  that  one  would  be  taken  by 
a  black  policeman  before  a  black  judge  to  be  handed  over  to  a  black 
gaoler,  they  would  understand  that  there  are  other  methods  of 
administration.  Had  they  ever  read  of  that  British  Governor  of 
Jamaica,  who,  having  in  the  face  of  dangerous  revolt,  executed  a 
Negro  without  due  forms  of  law,  was  recalled  to  London,  tried,  and 
barely  escaped  with  his  life.  It  is  by  such  tension  as  this  that  Euro- 
peans in  the  Tropics,  whatever  be  their  nation,  must  be  braced  up 
to  maintain  their  civilized  morale.  Human  nature  is  weak,  the  influ- 
ence of  environment  is  strong.  Germans  or  English  would  yield  and 
in  isolated  cases  have  yielded,  to  their  surroundings.  No  nation 
can  claim  much  individual  superiority  in  such  a  matter.  But  for 
both  Germany  and  England  (I  would  add  France,  were  it  not  for  the 
French  Congo)  can  claim  that  their  system  works  as  strongly  against 
outrage  as  the  Belgian  one  does  in  favour  of  it.  These  things  are 
not,  as  the  Commissioners  seemed  to  think,  necessary  evils,  which  are 
tolerated  elsewhere.  How  can  their  raw  opinion  weigh  for  a  moment 
upon  such  a  point  when  it  is  counterbalanced  by  the  words  of  such 
Reformers  as  Sir  Harry  Johnston  or  Lord  Cromer?  The  fact  is 
that  the  nmning  of  a  tropical  colony  is,  of  all  tests,  the  most  searching 


86  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

as  to  the  development  of  the  nation  which  attempts  it;  to  see  help- 
less people  and  not  to  oppress  them,  to  see  great  wealth  and  not  to 
confiscate  it,  to  have  absolute  power  and  not  to  abuse  it,  to  raise  the 
native  instead  of  sinking  yourself  —  these  are  the  supreme  trials  of  a 
nation's  spirit.  We  have  all  failed  at  times.  But  never  has  there  been 
failure  so  hopeless,  so  shocking,  bearing  such  consequences  to  the 
world,  such  degradation  to  the  good  name  of  Christianity  and  civiliza- 
tion as  the  failure  of  the  Belgians  in  the  Congo. 

And  all  this  has  happened  and  all  this  has  been  tolerated  in  an  age 
of  progress.  The  greatest,  deepest,  most  wide-reaching  crime  of 
which  there  is  any  record,  has  been  reserved  for  these  latter  years. 
Some  excuse  there  is  for  racial  extermination  where,  as  with  Saxons 
and  Celts,  two  peoples  contend  for  the  same  land  which  will  but 
hold  one.  Some  excuse,  too,  for  religious  massacre  when,  like 
Mahomet  the  Second  at  Constantinople,  or  Alva  in  the  Lowlands, 
the  bigoted  murderers  honestly  conceived  that  their  brutal  work  was  in 
the  interest  of  God.  But  here  the  real  doers  have  sat  remote  with 
cold  blood  in  their  veins,  knowing  well  from  day  to  day  what  they 
were  doing,  and  with  the  sole  object  of  adding  more  to  wealth  which 
was  already  enormous.  Consider  this  circumstance  and  consider 
also  the  professions  of  philanthropy  with  which  the  huge  massacre 
was  inaugurated,  the  cloud  of  lies  with  which  it  has  been  screened, 
the  persecution  and  calumny  of  the  few  honest  men  who  uncovered 
it,  the  turning  of  religion  against  religion  and  of  nation  against  nation 
in  the  attempt  to  perpetuate  it,  and  having  weighed  all  this,  tell  me 
where  in  the  course  of  history  there  is  any  such  story.  What  is  prog- 
ress ?  Is  it  to  run  a  little  faster  in  a  niotor-car,  to  listen  to  gabble 
in  a  gramophone?  —  these  are  the  toys  of  life.  But  if  progress  is  a 
spiritual  thing,  then  we  do  not  progress.  Such  a  horror  as  this  of 
Belgium  and  the  Congo  would  not  have  been  possible  fifty  years  ago. 
No  European  nation  would  have  done  it,  and  if  it  had,  no  other 
one  would  have  failed  to  raise  its  voice  in  protest.  There  was  more 
decorum  and  principle  in  life  in  those  slower  days.  We  live  in  a 
time  of  rush,  but  do  not  call  it  progress.  The  story  of  the  Congo  has 
made  the  idea  a  little  absurd. 


IX 

THE  CONGO  AFTER  THE  COMMISSION 

THE  high  hopes  which  the  advent  of  the  Commission  raised 
among  the  natives  and  the  few  Europeans  who  had  acted  as 
their  champions,  were  soon  turned  to  bitter  disappointment. 
The  indefatigable  Mr.  Harris  had  sent  on  after  the  Commission  a 
number  of  fresh  cases  which  had  come  to  his  notice.  In  one  of  these 
a  chief  deposed  that  he  had  been  held  back  in  his  village  (Boendo) 
in  order  to  prevent  him  from  reaching  the  Commission.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  breaking  away  from  his  guards,  but  was  punished  for  his 
enterprise  by  having  his  wife  clubbed  to  death  by  a  sentry.  He 
brought  with  him,  in  the  hope  that  he  might  lay  them  before  the 
judges,  one  hundred  and  eighty-two  long  twigs  and  seventy-six  smaller 
ones,  to  represent  so  many  adults  and  children  who  had  been  mur- 
dered by  the  A.B.I.R.  Company  in  his  district  during  the  last  few 
years.  His  account  of  the  methods  by  which  these  unfortunate  people 
met  their  deaths  will  not  bear  printing.  The  wildest  dreams  of  the 
Inquisition  were  outdone.  Women  had  been  killed  by  thrusting 
stakes  into  them  from  below.  When  the  horrified  missionary  asked 
the  chief  if  this  was  personally  known  to  him,  his  answer  was,  "They 
killed  my  daughter,  Nsinga,  in  this  manner;  I  found  the  stake  in 
her."  And  a  reputable  Belgian  statesman  can  write  in  this  year  of 
grace  that  they  are  carrying  on  the  beneficent  and  philanthropic 
mission  which  has  been  handed  down  to  them. 

In  a  later  communication  Mr.  Harris  gives  the  names  of  men, 
women  and  children  killed  by  the  sentries  of  a  M.  Pilaet. 

"Last  year,"  he  says,  "or  the  year  before,  the  young  woman, 
Imenega,  was  tied  to  a  forked  tree  and  chopped  in  half  with  a  hatchet, 
beginning  at  the  left  shoulder,  chopping  down  through  the  chest  and 
abdomen  and  out  at  the  side."  Again,  with  every  detail  of  name 
and  place,  he  dwelt  upon  the  horrible  fact  that  public  incest  had  been 
enforced  by  the  sentries  —  brother  with  sister,   and  father  with 

87 


88  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

daughter.  "Oh,  Inglesia,"  cried  the  chief  in  conclusion,  "don't 
stay  away  long;  if  you  do,  they  will  come,  I  am  sure  they  will  come, 
and  then  these  enfeebled  legs  will  not  support  me,  I  cannot  run  away. 
I  am  near  my  end;  try  and  see  to  it  that  they  let  me  die  in  peace; 
don't  stay  away." 

"I  was  so  moved,  your  Excellency,  at  these  people's  story  that  I 
took  the  liberty  of  promising  them,  in  the  name  of  the  Congo  Free 
State,  that  you  will  only  kill  them  in  future  for  crimes.  I  told  them 
the  Inspector  Royal  was,  I  hoped,  on  his  way,  and  that  I  was  sure  he 
would  listen  to  their  story,  and  give  them  time  to  recover  themselves." 

It  is  terrible  to  think  that  such  a  promise,  through  no  fault  of  Mr. 
Harris,  has  not  been  fulfilled.  Are  the  dreams  of  the  Commissioners 
never  haunted  by  the  thought  of  those  who  put  such  trust  in  them, 
but  whose  only  reward  has  been  that  they  have  been  punished  for 
the  evidence  they  gave  and  that  their  condition  has  been  more  miser- 
able than  ever.  The  final  practical  result  of  the  Commission  was  that 
upon  the  natives,  and  not  upon  their  murderers,  came  the  punish- 
ment. 

M.  Malfeyt,  a  Royal  High  Commissioner,  had  been  sent  out  on 
pretence  of  reform.  How  hollow  was  this  pretence  may  be  seen  from 
the  fact  that  at  the  same  time  M.  Wahis  had  been  despatched  as 
Governor-General  in  place  of  that  Constermann  who  had  committed 
suicide  after  his  interview  with  the  judges  of  the  Commission.  Wahis 
had  already  served  two  terms  as  Governor,  and  it  was  under  his  admin- 
istration that  all  the  abuses  the  Commission  had  condemned  had 
actually  grown  up.  Could  King  Leopold  have  shown  more  clearly 
how  far  any  real  reform  was  from  his  mind  ? 

M.  Malfeyt's  visit  had  been  held  up  as  a  step  toward  improve- 
ment. The  British  Government  had  been  assured  that  his  visit 
would  be  of  a  nature  to  effect  all  necessary  reforms.  On  arriving 
in  the  country,  however,  he  announced  that  he  had  no  power  to  act, 
and  only  came  to  see  and  hear.  Thus  a  few  more  months  were 
gained  before  any  change  could  be  effected.  The  only  small  consola- 
tion which  we  can  draw  from  all  this  succession  of  impotent  ambas- 
sadors and  reforming  committees,  which  do  not,  and  were  never 
intended  to,  reform,  is  that  the  game  has  been  played  and  exposed, 
and  surely  cannot  be  played  again.  A  Government  would  deservedly 
be  the  laughing-stock  of  the  world  which  again  accepted  assurances 
from  the  same  source. 


THE  CONGO  AFTER  THE  COMMISSION  89 

What,  in  the  meanwhile,  was  the  attitude  of  that  A.B.I.R.  Com- 
pany, whose  iniquities  had  been  thoroughly  exposed  before  the  Com- 
mission, and  whose  manager  M.  Le  Jeune,  had  fled  to  Europe? 
Was  it  ashamed  of  its  bloodthirsty  deeds?  Was  it  prepared  in  any 
way  to  modify  its  policy  after  the  revelations  which  its  representatives 
had  admitted  to  be  true?  Read  the  following  interview  which  Mr. 
Stannard  had  with  M.  Delvaux,  who  had  visited  the  stations  of  his 
disgraced  colleague: 

"He  spoke  of  the  Commission  of  Inquiry  in  a  contemptuous 
manner,  and  showed  considerable  annoyance  about  the  things  we 
had  said  to  the  Commission.  He  declared  the  A.B.I.R.  had  full 
authority  and  power  to  send  out  armed  sentries,  and  force  the  people 
to  bring  in  rubber,  and  to  imprison  those  who  did  not.  A  short  time 
ago,  the  natives  of  a  town  brought  in  some  rubber  to  the  agent  here, 
but  he  refused  it  because  it  was  not  enough,  and  the  men  were 
thrashed  by  the  A.B.I.R.  employees,  and  driven  away.  The  director 
justified  the  agent  in  refusing  the  rubber  because  the  quantity  was 
too  small.  The  Commissioners  had  declared  that  the  A.B.I.R.  had 
no  power  to  send  armed  sentries  into  the  towns  in  order  to  flog  the 
people  and  drive  them  into  the  forests  to  seek  rubber;  they  were 
*  guards  of  the  forest,'  and  that  was  their  work.  When  we  pointed 
this  out  to  M.  Delvaux,  he  pooh-poohed  the  idea,  and  said  the  name 
had  no  significance;  some  called  the  sentries  by  one  name,  some  by 
another.  We  pointed  out  that  the  people  were  not  compelled  to  pay 
their  taxes  in  rubber  only,  but  could  bring  in  other  things,  or  even 
currency.  He  denied  this,  and  said  that  the  alternative  tax  only 
meant  that  an  agent  could  impose  whatever  tax  he  thought  fit.  It 
had  no  reference  whatever  to  the  natives.  The  A.B.I.R.  preferred 
the  taxes  to  be  paid  in  rubber.  This  is  what  the  A.B.I.R.  says,  in 
spite  of  the  interpretation  by  Baron  Nisco,  the  highest  judicial  author- 
ity in  the  State,  that  the  natives  could  pay  their  taxes  in  what  they  were 
best  able.  All  these  things  were  said  in  the  presence  of  the  Royal 
High  Commissioner,  who,  whether  he  approved  or  not,  certainly  did 
not  contradict  or  protest  against  them." 

Within  a  week  or  two  of  the  departure  of  the  Commission  the 
state  of  the  country  was  as  bad  as  ever.  It  cannot  be  too  often 
repeated  that  it  was  not  local  in  its  origin,  but  that  it  occurred  there, 
as  elsewhere,  on  account  of  pressure  from  the  central  officials.  If 
further  proof  were  needed  of  this  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  Van  Ca^lchen 


90  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

trial.  This  agent,  having  been  arrested,  succeeded  in  showing  (as 
was  done  in  the  Caudron  case)  that  the  real  guilt  lay  with  his  superior 
officers.     In  his  defence  he 

"Bases  his  power  on  a  letter  of  the  Commissaire-Gdn6ral  de 
Bauw  (the  Supreme  Executive  Officer  in  the  District),  and  in  a 
circular  transmitted  to  him  by  his  director,  and  signed  'Constermann' 
(Governor-General) ,  which  he  read  to  the  Court,  deploring  the  dimin- 
ished output  in  rubber,  and  saying  that  the  agents  of  the  A.B.I.R. 
should  not  forget  that  they  had  the  same  powers  of  ^contrainte  par 
corps^  (bodily  detention)  as  were  delegated  to  the  agent  of  the  Soci^td 
Commerciale  Anversoise  au  Congo  for  the  increase  of  rubber  produc- 
tion; that  if  the  Governor-General  or  his  Commissaire-Gen^ral  did 
not  know  what  they  were  writing  and  what  they  signed,  he  knows 
what  orders  he  had  to  obey;  it  was  not  for  him  to  question  the  legality 
or  illegality  of  these  orders;  his  superiors  ought  to  have  known  and 
have  weighed  what  they  wrote  before  giving  him  orders  to  execute; 
that  bodily  detention  of  natives  for  rubber  was  no  secret,  seeing 
that  at  the  end  of  every  month  a  statement  of  'contrainte  par  corps^ 
(bodily  detention)  during  the  month  has  to  be  furnished  in  duplicate, 
the  book  signed,  and  one  of  the  copies  transmitted  to  the  Govern- 
ment." 

Whilst  these  organized  outrages  were  continuing  in  the  Congo^ 
King  Leopold,  at  Belgium,  had  taken  a  fresh  step,  which,  in  its 
cynical  disregard  for  any  attempt  at  consistency,  surpassed  any  of  his 
previous  performances.  Feeling  that  something  must  be  done  in 
the  face  of  the  finding  of  his  own  delegates,  he  appointed  a  fresh 
Commission,  whose  terms  of  reference  were  "  to  study  the  conclusions 
of  the  Commission  of  Inquiry,  to  formulate  the  proposals  they  call 
for,  and  to  seek  for  practical  means  for  realizing  them."  It  is  worth 
while  to  enumerate  the  names  of  the  men  chosen  for  this  work.  Had 
a  European  Areopagus  called  before  it  the  head  criminals  of  this 
terrible  business,  all  of  these  men,  with  the  exception  of  two  or  three, 
would  have  been  standing  in  the  dock.  Take  their  names  in  turn: 
Van  Maldeghem,  the  President  —  a  jurist,  who  had  written  on  Congo 
law,  but  had  no  direct  complicity  in  the  crimes;  Janssens,  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  former  Commission,  a  man  of  integrity;  M.  Davignon, 
a  Belgian  politician  —  so  far  the  selection  is  a  possible  one  —  now 
listen  to  the  others!  De  Cuvelier,  creature  of  the  King,  and  respon- 
sible for  the  Congo  horrors;  Droogmans,  creature  of  the  King,  admin- 


THE  CONGO  AFTER  THE  COMMISSION  91 

istrator  of  the  secret  funds  derived  from  his  African  estates,  and 
himself  President  of  a  Rubber  Trust;  Arnold,  creature  of  the  King; 
Liebrechts,  the  same;  Gohr,  the  same;  Chenot,  a  Congo  Commis- 
sioner; Tombeur,  the  same;  Five,  a  Congo  inspector;  Nys,  the  chief 
legal  upholder  of  the  King's  system;  De  Hemptinne,  President  of  the 
Kasai  Rubber  Trust;  Mobs,  an  Administrator  of  the  A.B.I.R.  Is 
it  not  evident  that,  save  the  first  three,  these  were  the  very  men  who 
were  on  their  trial?  The  whole  appointment  is  an  example  of  that 
cynical  humour  which  gives  a  grotesque  touch  to  this  inconceivable 
story.  It  need  not  be  added  that  no  result  making  for  reform  ever 
came  from  such  an  assembly.  One  can  but  rejoice  that  the  presence 
of  the  small  humane  minority  may  have  prevented  the  others  from 
devising  some  fresh  methods  of  oppression. 

It  cannot  be  said,  however,  that  no  judicial  proceedings  and  no 
condemnation  arose  from  the  actions  of  the  Congo  Commission. 
But  who  could  ever  guess  who  the  man  was  who  was  dragged  to  the 
bar.  On  the  evidence  of  natives  and  missionaries,  the  whole  white 
hierarchy,  from  Governor-General  to  subsidized  cannibal,  had  been 
shown  to  be  blood-guilty.  Which  of  them  was  punished  ?  None  of 
them,  but  Mr.  Stannard,  one  of  the  accusing  witnesses.  He  had 
shown  that  the  soldiers  of  a  certain  M.  Hagstrom  had  behaved 
brutally  to  the  natives.    This  was  the  account  of  Lontulu  the  chief : 

"Lontulu,  the  senior  chief  of  Bolima,  came  with  twenty  witnesses, 
which  was  all  the  canoe  would  hold.  He  brought  with  him  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  twigs,  each  of  which  represented  a  life  sacrificed  for  rub- 
ber. The  twigs  were  of  different  lengths,  and  represented  chiefs,  men, 
women  and  children,  according  to  their  length.  It  was  a  horrible 
story  of  massacre,  mutilation  and  cannibalism  that  he  had  to  tell, 
and  it  was  perfectly  clear  that  he  was  telling  the  truth.  He  was 
further  supported  by  other  eye-witnesses.  These  crimes  were  com- 
mitted by  those  who  were  acting  under  the  instructions  and  with  the 
knowledge  of  white  men.  On  one  occasion  the  sentries  were  flogged 
because  they  had  not  killed  enough  people.  At  one  time,  after  they 
had  killed  a  number  of  people,  including  Isekifasu,  the  principal 
chief,  his  wives  and  children,  the  bodies,  except  that  of  Isekifasu, 
were  cut  up,  and  the  cannibalistic  fighters  attached  to  the  A.B.I.R. 
force  were  rationed  on  the  meat  thus  supplied.  The  intestines,  etc., 
were  hung  up  in  and  about  the  house,  and  a  little  child  who  had  been 
cut  in  halves  was  impaled.    After  one  attack,  Lontulu,  the  chief, 


92  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

was  shown  the  dead  bodies  of  his  people,  and  asked  by  the  rubber 
agent  if  he  would  bring  in  rubber  now.  He  replied  that  he  would. 
Although  a  chief  of  considerable  standing,  he  has  been  flogged, 
imprisoned,  tied  by  the  neck  with  men  who  were  regarded  as  slaves, 
made  to  do  the  most  menial  work,  and  his  beard,  which  was  of  many 
years'  growth,  and  reached  almost  to  the  ground,  was  cut  off  by  the 
rubber  agent  because  he  visited  another  town." 

Lontulu  was  cross-examined  by  the  Commission  and  his  evidence 
was  not  shaken.    Here  are  some  of  the  questions  and  answers : 

"President  Janssens:  *M.  Hagstrom  leur  a  fait  la  guerre.  II 
a  tue  beaucoup  d'hommes  avec  ses  soldats.' 

"To  Lontulu:  'Were  the  people  of  Monji,  etc.,  given  the  corpses 
to  eat?' 

"Lontulu:  *Yes,  they  cut  them  up  and  ate  them.' 

"Baron  Nisco:    'Did  they  flog  you?' 

"  Lontulu :    '  Repeatedly.' 

"Baron  Nisco:  'Who  cut  your  beard  off?' 

"  Lontulu :  '  M.  Hannotte.' 

"President  Janssens:  'Did  you  see  sentries  kill  your  people? 
Did  they  kill  many?' 

''Lontulu:  'Yes,  all  my  family  is  finished.' 

"President:    'Give  us  names.' 

"Lontulu:  'Chiefs  Bokomo,  Isekifasu,  Botamba,  Longeva,  Bos- 
angi,  Booifa,  Eongo,  Lomboto,  Loma,  Bayolo.' 

"irhen  followed  names  of  women  and  children  and  ordinary 
men  (not  chiefs). 

"Lontulu :  *  May  I  call  my  son  lest  I  make  a  mistake ? ' 

"President:  '  It  is  unnecessary ;  goon.' 

"Lontulu:  'Bomposa,  Beanda,  Ekila.' 

"President:  'Are  you  sure  that  each  of  your  twigs  (no)  represents 
one  person  killed?' 

"Lontulu:  'Yes.' 

"President:  'Was  Isekifasu  killed  at  this  time?' 

"Reply  not  recorded. 

"President:  'Did  you  see  his  entrails  hanging  on  his  house?' 

"Lontulu:    'Yes.' 

"Question:  'Were  the  sentries  and  people  who  helped  given 
the  dead  bodies  to  eat?' 


THE  CONGO  AFTER  THE  COMMISSION  93 

"Answer:  'Yes,  they  ate  them.  Those  who  took  part  in  the 
fight  cut  them  up  and  ate  them.  ...  He  was  chicotted  (flogged), 
and  said,  "  Why  do  you  do  this  ?  Is  it  right  to  flog  a  chief  ?  "  Gave 
a  very  full  account  of  his  harsh  treatment  and  sufferings." 

The  action  was  taken  for  criminal  libel  by  M.  Hagstrom  against 
Mr.  Stannard,  for  saying  that  this  evidence  had  been  given  before  the 
Commission.  Of  course,  the  only  way  to  establish  the  fact  was  a 
reference  to  the  evidence  itself  which  lay  at  Brussels.  But  as  Hag- 
strom was  only  a  puppet  of  the  higher  Government  of  the  Congo 
(which  means  the  King  himself),  in  their  attempt  to  revenge  them- 
selves upon  the  missionaries  it  was  not  very  likely  that  official  docu- 
ments would  be  produced  for  the  mere  purpose  of  serving  the  end 
of  Justice.  The  minutes  then  were  not  forthcoming.  How,  then, 
was  Mr.  Stannard  to  produce  evidence  that  his  account  was  correct  ? 
Obviously  by  producing  Lontulu,  the  chief.  But  the  wretched 
Lontulu,  beaten  and  tortured,  with  his  beard  plucked  off  and  his 
spirit  broken,  had  been  cast  into  gaol  before  the  trial,  and  knew  well 
what  would  be  his  fate  if  he  testified  against  his  masters.  He  with- 
drew all  that  he  had  said  at  the  Commission  —  and  who  can  blame 
him  ?  So  M.  Hagstrom  obtained  his  verdict  and  the  Belgian  reptile 
Press  proclaimed  that  Mr.  Stannard  had  been  proved  to  be  a  liar. 
He  was  sentenced  to  three  months'  imprisonment,  with  the  alternative 
of  a  ;,^40  fine.  Even  as  I  write,  two  more  of  these  lion-hearted  mis- 
sionaries, Americans  this  time  —  Mr.  Morrison  and  Mr.  Shepherd  — 
are  undergoing  a  similar  prosecution  on  the  Congo.  This  time  it  is 
the  Kasai  Company  which  is  the  injured  innocent.  But  the  eyes  of 
Europe  and  America  are  on  the  transaction,  and  M.  Vandervelde, 
the  fearless  Belgian  advocate  of  liberty,  has  set  forth  to  act  for  the 
accused.  What  M.  Labori  was  to  Dreyfus,  M.  Vandervelde  has  been 
to  the  Congo,  save  that  it  is  a  whole  nation  who  are  his  clients.  He 
and  his  noble  comrade,  Mr.  Lorand,  are  the  two  men  who  redeem  the 
record  of  infamy  which  must  long  darken  the  good  name  of  Belgium. 

I  will  now  deal  swiftly  with  the  records  of  evil  deeds  which  have 
occurred  since  the  time  which  I  have  already  treated.  I  say  "swiftly  " 
not  because  there  is  not  much  material  from  which  to  choose,  but 
because  I  feel  that  my  reader  must  be  as  sated  with  horrors  as  I  who 
have  to  write  them.  Here  are  some  notes  of  a  journey  undertaken  by 
W.  Cassie  Murdoch,  as  recently  as  July  and  September,  1907.  This 
time  we  are  concerned  with  the  Crown  Domain,  King  Leopold's 


94  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

private  estate,  of  which  we  have  such  accounts  from  Mr.  Clark  and 
Mr.  Scrivener  dating  as  far  back  as  1894.  Thirteen  years  had  elapsed 
and  no  change!  What  do  these  thirteen  represent  in  torture  and 
murder  ?  Could  aU  these  screams  be  united,  what  a  vast  cry  would 
have  reached  the  heavens.  In  the  Congo  heU  the  most  lurid  glow  is 
to  be  found  in  the  Royal  Domain.  And  the  money  dragged  from 
these  tortured  people  is  used  in  turn  to  corrupt  newspapers  and  public 
men  —  that  it  may  be  possible  to  continue  the  system.  So  the  devil's 
wheel  goes  round  and  round!  Here  are  some  extracts  from  Mr. 
Murdoch's  report: 

"I  remarked  to  the  old  chief  of  the  largest  town  I  came  across  that 
his  people  seemed  to  be  numerous.  *  Ah,'  said  he,  'my  people  are  all 
dead.  These  you  see  are  only  a  very  few  of  what  I  once  had.'  And, 
indeed,  it  was  evident  enough  that  his  town  had  once  been  a  place  of 
great  size  and  importance.  There  cannot  be  the  least  doubt  that  this 
depopulation  is  directly  due  to  the  State.  Everywhere  I  went  I  heard 
stories  of  the  raids  made  by  the  State  soldiers.  The  number  of  people 
they  shot,  or  otherwise  tortured  to  death,  must  have  been  enormous. 
Perhaps  as  many  more  of  those  who  escaped  the  rifle  died  from  starva- 
tion and  exposure.  More  than  one  of  my  carriers  could  tell  of  how 
their  villages  had  been  raided,  and  of  their  own  narrow  escapes. 
They  are  not  a  warlike  people,  and  I  could  hear  of  no  single  attempt 
at  resistance.  They  are  the  kind  of  people  the  State  soldiers  are  most 
successful  with.  They  would  rather  any  day  run  away  than  fight. 
And  in  fact,  they  have  nothing  to  fight  with  except  a  few  bows  and 
arrows.  I  have  been  trj^ing  to  reckon  the  probable  number  of  people 
I  met  with.  I  should  say  that  five  thousand  is,  if  anything,  beyond 
the  mark.  A  few  years  ago  the  population  of  the  district  I  passed 
through  must  have  been  four  times  that  number.  On  my  return 
march  I  was  desirous  of  visiting  Mbelo,  the  place  where  Lieutenant 
Massard  had  been  stationed,  and  in  which  he  committed  his  unspeak- 
able outrages.  On  making  inquiries,  however,  I  was  told  that  there 
were  no  people  there  now,  and  that  the  roads  were  all  'dead.'  On 
reaching  one  of  the  roads  that  led  there,  it  was  evident  enough  that  it 
had  not  been  used  for  a  long  time.  Later  on,  I  was  able  to  confirm 
the  statement  that  what  had  once  been  a  district  with  numerous  large 
towns,  was  now  completely  empty.     ... 

"With  the  exception  of  a  few  people  living  near  the  one  State 
post  now  existing  on  this  side  of  the  Lake,  who  supply  the  Sta-te  with 


THE  CONGO  AFTER  THE  COMMISSION  95 

kwanga  and  large  mats,  all  the  people  I  saw  are  taxed  with  rubber. 
The  rubber  tax  is  an  intolerable  burden  —  how  intolerable  I  should 
have  found  it  almost  impossible  to  believe  had  I  not  seen  it.  It  is 
DIFFICULT  TO  DESCRIBE  IT  CALMLY.  What  I  found  was  simply  this : 
The  'tax'  demands  from  twenty  to  twenty- five  days'  labour  every  month. 
There  never  was  a  *  forty  hours  per  month  labour  law '  in  the  Crown 
Domain,  and  so  long  as  the  tax  is  demanded  in  rubber,  there  never 
will  be  —  at  least  in  the  section  of  it  I  visited.  If  that  law  were 
applied,  no  rubber  would,  or  could  possibly,  be  produced,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  there  is  no  rubber  left  in  this  section  of  the  Domain. 

"  It  was  some  time  before  I  made  the  discovery  that  in  the  Domaine 
de  la  Couronne  west  of  Lake  Leopold  there  is  no  rubber.  On  my 
way  through  I  was  continually  meeting  numbers  of  men  going  out 
on  the  hunt  for  rubber,  and  heard  with  amazement  the  distance  they 
had  to  walk.  It  seemed  so  impossible  that  I  was  somewhat  sceptical 
of  the  truth  of  what  I  was  told.  But  I  heard  the  same  story  so  often, 
and  in  so  many  different  places,  that  I  was  at  last  obliged  to  accept 
it.  On  my  return  I  followed  up  this  track,  and  found  that  it  was  all 
true.  And  I  found  also  that  the  rubber  is  collected  from  the  Domaine 
Priv^  in  forests  from  ten  to  forty  miles  beyond  the  boundary  of  the 
CrowTi  Domain. 

"Once  the  vines  had  been  found  the  working  of  the  rubber  is  a 
small  part  of  the  labour.  I  have  made  a  careful  calculation  of  the 
distance  the  people  I  met  have  to  walk,  and  I  find  that  the  average 
cannot  be  less  than  300  miles  there  and  back.  But  walking  to  the  forest 
and  back  does  not  occupy  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  days  per  month. 
They  will  cover  the  300  miles  in  ten  or  twelve  days.  The  rest  of  the 
time  is  used  in  hunting  for  the  vines,  and  in  tapping  them  when  found. 
I  met  a  party  returning  with  their  rubber  who  had  been  six  nights  in 
the  forest.  This  was  the  lowest  number.  Most  of  them  have  to 
spend  ten,  some  as  many  as  fifteen,  nights  in  the  forest.  Two  days  after 
I  left  the  Domain  on  my  way  back  I  saw  some  men  returning  empty- 
handed.  They  had  been  hunting  for  over  eight  days  and  had  found 
nothing.  What  the  poor  wretches  would  do  I  cannot  imagine.  If 
they  failed  to  produce  the  usual  amount  of  rubber  on  the  appointed 
day  they  would  be  put  in  'bloc'  (imprisoned). 

"The  workmen  of  the  chef  de  poste  at  Mbongo  described  a  concoc- 
tion which  is  sometimes  administered  to  capitas  when  their  tale  of 
rubber  is  short.  The  white  man  chops  up  green  tobacco  leaves  and 
soaks  them  in  water.     Red  peppers  are  added,  and  a  dose  of  the  liquid 


96  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

is  administered  to  defaulting  capitas.  This  wily  oflScial  manages  to 
get  thirteen  monthly  'taxes'  in  the  year.  At  one  village  I  bought  a 
contrivance  by  which  the  natives  reckon  when  the  tax  falls  due. 
Pieces  of  wood  are  strung  on  a  piece  of  cane.  One  piece  is  moved  up 
every  day.  On  counting  them  I  found  there  were  only  twenty-eight. 
I  asked  why,  and  was  told  that  originally  there  were  thirty  pieces,  but 
the  white  man  had  so  often  sent  on  the  twenty-eighth  day  to  say  the 
time  was  up,  that  at  last  they  took  off  two. 

"Individual  acts  of  atrocity  here  have  for  the  most  part  ceased. 
The  State  agents  seem  to  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  a  waste 
of  cartridges  to  shoot  down  these  people.     But  the  whole  system 

IS  A  VAST  ATROCITY  INVOLVING  THE  PEOPLE  IN  A  STATE  OF  UNIMAGIN- 
ABLE MISERY.  One  man  said  to  me, '  Slaves  are  happy  compared  with 
us.  Slaves  are  protected  by  their  masters,  they  are  fed  and  clothed. 
As  for  us  —  the  capitas  do  with  us  what  they  like.  Our  wives  have  to 
plant  the  cassava  gardens  and  fish  in  the  stream  to  feed  us  while 
we  spend  our  days  working  for  Bula  Matadi.  No,  we  are  not  even 
slaves.'  And  he  is  right.  //  is  not  slavery  as  slavery  was  generally 
understood:  it  is  not  even  the  uncivilized  African^ s  idea  of  slavery. 
There  never  was  a  slavery  more  absolute  in  its  despotism  or  more 
fiendish  in  its  tyranny.'^ 

It  will  be  seen  that,  so  far  as  the  people  are  concerned,  the  problem 
is  largely  solved,  the  bitterness  of  death  is  past.  No  European  inter- 
vention can  save  them.  In  many  places  they  have  been  utterly 
destroyed.  But  they  were  the  wards  of  Europe,  and  surely 
Europe,  if  she  is  not  utterly  lost  to  shame,  will  have  something 
to  say  to  their  fate! 


X 

SOME  CATHOLIC  TESTIMONY  AS  TO  THE  CONGO 

IT  MUST  be  admitted  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  as  an 
organized  body,  has  not  raised  her  voice  as  she  should  in  the 
matter  of  the  Congo.  Never  was  there  such  a  field  for  a  Las 
Casas.  It  was  the  proudest  boast  of  that  church  that  in  the  dark 
days  of  man's  history  she  was  the  one  power  which  stood  with  her 
spiritual  terrors  between  the  oppressor  and  the  oppressed.  This 
noble  tradition  has  been  sadly  forgotten  in  the  Congo,  where  the 
missions  have  themselves,  as  I  understand,  done  most  excellent 
work,  but  where  the  power  of  the  Church  has  never  been  invoked 
against  the  constant  barbarities  of  the  State.  In  extenuation,  it 
may  be  stated  that  the  chief  Catholic  establishments  are  down 
the  river  and  far  from  the  rubber  zones.  It  is  important, 
however,  to  collect  under  a  separate  heading  such  testimony  as 
exists,  for  an  unworthy  attempt  has  been  made  to  represent  the 
matter  as  a  contest  between  rival  creeds,  whereas  it  is  really  a 
contest  between  humanity  and  civilization  on  one  side  and  cruel 
greed  upon  the  other. 

The  organization  of  the  Catholic  Church  is  more  disciplined, 
and  admits  of  less  individualism  than  that  of  those  religious 
bodies  which  supplied  the  valiant  champions  of  right  in  the 
Congo.  The  simple  priests  were  doubtless  as  horrified  as 
others,  within  the  limit  of  their  knowledge,  but  the  means  of 
expression  were  denied  them.  M.  Coifs,  himself  a  Catholic,  said 
in  the  Belgian  Chamber:  "Our  missionaries  have  less  liberty  than 
foreign  missionaries.  They  are  expected  to  keep  silence.  .  .  . 
There  is  a  gag.  This  gag  is  placed  in  the  mouth  of  Belgian 
missionaries." 

Signor  Santini,  the  Catholic  and  Royalist  Deputy  for  Rome,  has 
been  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  anti-Congo  movement,  and  has  done 
excellent  work  in  Italy.  From  his  own  sources  of  information  he 
confirms  and  amplifies  all  that  the  English  and  Americans  have 

97 


98  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

asserted.     Speaking  in  the  Italian  Parliament  on  February  4th,  1907, 
Signer  Santini  said: 

"I  am  proud  to  have  been  the  first  to  bring  the  question  of  the 
Congo  before  this  House.  If  at  the  present  day  we  are  spared  the 
shame  of  seeing  again  officers  of  our  Army,  valorous  and  perfectly 
stainless,  serving  under  and  at  the  orders  of  an  association  of 
sweaters,  slave-holders  and  barbarians,  it  is  legitimate  for  me  to 
declare  that  I  have,  if  only  modestly,  at  least  efl&caciously, 
co-operated  in  this  result." 

There  is  no  conflict  of  creeds  in  such  an  utterance  as  that. 

Catholic  papers  have  occasionally  spoken  out  bravely  upon  the 
subject. 

Le  Patrioie,  of  Brussels  (Royalist  and  Catholic),  in  its  issue  of 
February  28th,  1907,  has  an  indignant  editorial: 

"  The  rebellion  in  the  A.B.I.R.  territory  extends.  The  Govern- 
ment itself  forces  the  rubber,  and  delivers  it  on  the  Antwerp  quay 
to  the  brokers  of  the  A.B.I.R.  .  .  .  Nothing  is  altered  on 
the  Congo.  The  same  abominable  measures  are  adopted;  the 
same  outrages  take  place.  .  .  .  The  Government  is  adopting 
the  same  measures  as  in  the  Mongalla,  flooding  the  A.B.I.R. 
territory  with  soldiers  to  utterly  smash  the  people,  whom  it  thinks 
will  then  work,  and  the  rubber  output  be  increased.  .  .  .  The 
memory  of  these  deeds  will  remain  graven  in  the  memory  of  men, 
and  in  the  memory  of  Divine  vengeance.  Sooner  or  later  the  execu- 
tioners will  have  to  render  an  account  to  God  and  to  history." 

There  is  one  order  of  the  Catholic  Church  which  has  always 
had  a  most  noble  record  in  its  treatment  of  native  races.  These  are 
the  Jesuits.  No  one  who  has  read  the  "History  of  Paraguay," 
or  studied  the  records  of  the  Missions  to  the  Red  Indians 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  can  forget  the  picture  of  unselfish 
devotion  which  they  exhibit.  Father  Vermeersch,  a  worthy 
successor  of  such  predecessors,  has  published  a  book,  "La 
Question  Congolaise,"  in  which  he  finds  nothing  'incompatible 
between  his  position  as  a  Catholic  and  his  exposure  of  the 
abuses  of  the  Congo. 

In  all  points  the  position  of  Father  Vermeersch  and  of  the  English 
Reformers  appears  to  be  identical. 


CATHOLIC  TESTIMONY  AS  TO  THE  CONGO       99 

On  the  rightful  possession  of  the  land  by  the  natives  he  writes 
in  terms  which  might  be  a  paragraph  from  Mr.  Morel : 

"On  the  Congo  the  land  cannot  be  supposedly  vacant.  Pre- 
sumption is  in  favour  of  occupation,  of  a  full  occupation.  By  this 
is  meant  that  it  is  not  sufficient  to  recognize  to  the  natives  rights 
of  tenure  over  the  land  they  actually  cultivate,  or  certain  rights  of 
usage  —  wood-cutting,  hunting,  fishing  —  on  the  remainder  of 
the  territory;  but  these  rights  of  usage,  which  are  much  more  import- 
ant than  with  us,  appear  to  imply  a  full  animus  domini,  and  to 
signify  a  complete  appropriation,  which  is  carried  out  amongst  us 
in  different  fashion.  It  is  not,  in  effect,  indispensable  in  natural 
law  that  I  should  exhaust  the  utility  of  an  article  or  of  land  in  order 
to  be  able  to  claim  it  as  my  own;  it  suffices  that  I  should  make  use 
of  it  in  a  positive  manner,  but  of  my  own  will,  personally,  and  that 
I  should  have  the  will  to  forbid  any  stranger  to  use  it  without  my 
consent.  Hence  effective  occupation  is  joined  to  intention,  and 
all  the  constituent  elements  to  a  valid  title  of  property  exist.  Let 
us  suppose,  moreover,  that  some  great  Belgian  landowner  wishes  to 
convert  portions  of  his  property  into  sporting  land  —  that  land, 
nevertheless,  remains  in  his  entire  possession.  Amongst  the  Congo 
natives,  no  doubt,  occupation  is  usually  collective;  but  such 
occupation  is  as  worthy  of  respect  as  no  matter  what  individual 
appropriation." 

He  continues: 

"To  whom  does  the  rubber  belong  which  grows  upon  the  land 
occupied  by  the  Congo  natives?  To  the  natives,  and  to  no  one 
else,  without  their  consent  and  just  compensation." 

Again: 

"  To  sum  up,  we  recognize  it  with  much  regret,  the  State's  appro- 
priation of  so-called  vacant  land  on  the  Congo  confronts  us  with  an 

IMMENSE  EXPROPRIATION." 

He  makes  a  bold  attack  upon  King  Leopold's  own  preserve: 

"Humanity,  whose  cause  we  plead.  Christian  rights,  whose  prin- 
ciples we  endeavour  to  inculcate,  compel  us  to  touch  briefly  upon 
a  curious  and  mysterious  creation  which  is  peculiar  to  the  Congo 
State  —  the  Domaine  de  la  Couronne." 


loo  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

"What  are  the  revenues  of  this  mysterious  civil  personality? 
Estimates,  more  or  less  conjectural  in  nature,  elaborated  by  M. 
Cattier  appear  to  establish  the  profits  from  the  exploitation  of  rubber 
alone,  at  eight  to  nine  millions  of  francs  per  annum.  M.  le  Comte 
de  Smet  de  Naeyer  reduces  this  figure  to  four  or  five  millions.  Short 
of  positive  data  one  can  only  deal  in  conjectures.  But  we  regret  still 
more  that  an  impenetrable  veil  hides  from  sight  all  that  takes  place 
in  the  territory  of  this  Domaine.    It  is  eight  or  ten  times  the 

SIZE  OF  BELGIUM,  AND  THROUGHOUT  THIS  VAST  EXTENT  OF  TERRI- 
TORY THERE  IS  NEITHER  MISSIONARY  NOR  MAGISTRATE." 

Only  one  missionary  at  that  date  had  entered  this  dark  land,  and 
his  exclamation  was:  "The  Bulgarian  atrocities  are  child's  play 
to  what  has  taken  place  here." 

Father  Vermeersch  then  proceeds  to  deal  with  the  Congo  balance- 
sheets.  His  criticism  is  most  destructive.  He  shows  at  consider- 
able length,  and  with  a  fine  grasp  of  his  subject,  that  there  is  really 
no  connection  at  all  between  the  so-called  estimate  and  the  actual 
budget.  In  the  course  of  the  State's  development  there  is  an  excess 
running  to  millions  of  pounds  which  has  never  been  accounted  for. 
In  this  Father  Vermeersch  is  in  agreement  with  the  equally  elaborate 
calculations  of  Professor  Cattier,  of  Brussels. 

He  puts  the  economical  case  in  a  nutshell  thus: 

"X ,  District  Commissioner,  commits  every  day  dozens  of 

offences  against  individual  liberty.  What  can  be  done?  These 
violations  of  the  law  are  necessitated  by  a  great  enterprise  which 
must  have  workmen.  In  such  cases  the  intervention  of  the  magis- 
trate would  be  a  ruinous  imprudence,  calculated  to  bring  trouble 
into  the  region." 

"But  the  law?" 

"Oh,  law  in  the  Congo  is  not  applicable!" 

"But  if  you  offered  a  decent  remuneration,  would  you  not  get 
free  labour?" 

"That  is  precisely  what  the  State  will  not  listen  to.  It  maintains 
that  the  enterprise  must  be  carried  out  for  nothing!" 

And  disposes  once  again  of  the  "forty  hours  a  month"  fiction: 

"It  is  IMPOSSIBLE  FOR  THE  StATE  TO  OBTAIN  THE  AMOUNT  OF 
RUBBER  IT  SELLS  ANNUALLY,  BY  LABOUR  LIMITED  TO  FORTY  HOURS 


CATHOLIC  TESTIMONY  AS  TO  THE  CONGO      loi 

A  MONTH,  especially  when  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  a  number  of  these 
hours  are  absorbed  in  other  corvees.  Of  two  things  one,  therefore. 
Either  the  surplus  is  furnished  freely;  and  if  so,  how  can  coercion 
be  logically  argued?  Or  this  supplementary  labour  is  forced;  and 
if  so,  the  law  of  forty  hours  is  shown  to  be  merely  a  fraud." 

He  shows  the  root  causes  of  the  evil: 

"  So  long  as  an  inflexible  will  fixes  in  advance  the  quantity  of  rubber 
to  be  obtained;  so  long  as  instructions  are  given  in  this  form: 
*  Increase  by  five  tons  your  rubber  output  per  month'  (instance  given 
by  Father  Cus  and  van  Hencxthoven  in  their  report),  we  cannot 
await  with  confidence  a  serious  improvement,  which  is  the  desire 
ofaU.     .    .     ." 

"The  Governor- General  dismisses  and  appoints  magistrates 
at  his  will,  suspends  the  execution  of  penalties;  even  sends  back, 
if  need  be,  gentlemen  of  the  gown  to  Europe.  Who  does  not  realize 
the  grave  inconvenience  of  this  dependence?  That  is  not  all.  No 
proceedings  can  be  attempted  against  a  European  without  the 
authority  of  the  Governor-General." 

And,  finally,  his  reasons  for  writing  his  book: 

"The  contemplation  of  an  immeasurable  misery  has  caused  us 
to  publish  this  book.  The  gravity  of  the  evil,  its  roots  causes,  had 
long  escaped  us.  When  we  knew  them  we  could  not  retain  within 
ourselves  the  compassion  with  which  we  were  imbued,  and  we 
resolved  to  tell  the  citizens  of  a  generous  country,  appealing  to  their 
religion,  to  their  patriotism,  to  their  hearts." 

^  Surely  after  such  evidence  from  such  a  source  there  must  be  some 
heart-searchings  among  those  higher  members  of  the  Catholic 
hierarchy,  including  both  Cardinals  and  Bishops,  who  have  done 
what  they  could  to  cripple  the  efforts  of  the  reformers.  Misinformed 
through  their  own  want  of  care  in  searching  for  the  truth,  they  have 
stood  before  the  whole  world  as  the  defenders  of  that  which  will  be 
described  by  the  historian  as  the  greatest  crime  in  history. 


XI 

THE  EVIDENCE  UP  TO  DATE 

I  SHALL  now  append  some  extracts  from  the  reports  of  several 
British  Vice-Consuls  and  Consuls  sent  in  during  the  last 
few  years.  These  bear  less  upon  outrages,  which  have 
admittedly  greatly  decreased,  but  mainly  upon  the  general  condition 
of  the  people,  which  is  one  of  deplorable  poverty  and  misery  —  a 
slavery  without  that  care  which  the  owner  was  bound  to  exercise 
over  the  health  and  strength  of  the  slave.  I  shall  give  without 
comment  some  extracts  from  the  reports  of  Vice-Consul  Mitchell, 
which  date  from  July,  1906: 

"Most  of  the  primitive  bridges  over  the  numerous  creeks  and 
marshes  had  rotted  away,  and  we  had  some  difficulty  in  crossing 
on  fallen  trees  or  a  few  thin  sticks.  This  was  the  case  all  the  way 
to  Banalya,  and  I  may  here  state  that  this  condition  of  the  roads, 
even  of  the  most  frequented,  is  universal  in  this  province.  The 
reason  is  that  the  local  authorities  have  neither  men,  means,  nor  time 
at  their  disposal  for  the  making  of  decent  roads.  The  parsimony 
0}  the  State  in  this  respect  is  the  more  remarkable  in  the  ^Domaine 
Privi,''  whence  large  amounts  are  derived,  and  where  next  to  nothing  is 
expended. 

"So  long  as  the  policy  of  the  State  Government  is  to  extract  all 
it  can  from  the  country,  while  using  only  local  materials,  and  spending 
the  least  possible  amount  on  development  and  improvements,  no 
increase  in  the  general  well-being  can  be  expected.     .     .    . 

".  .  .  .  At  all  the  posts  on  the  north  (right)  bank,  between 
Yambuya  and  Basoko,  I  found  the  European  agents  absent  in  the 
interior,  and  at  Basoko  itself  only  the  doctor  was  left  in  charge,  all 
the  rest  of  the  staff  being  away  'en  expedition,'  that  is,  on  punitive 
expeditions. 

"I  stayed  at  Basoko  for  five  days,  partly  at  Dr.  Grossule's  request, 
and  partly  in  the  endeavour  to  learn  something  of  the  operations 


THE  EVIDENCE  UP  TO  DATE  103 

going  on  in  the  interior.  Three  canoe-loads  of  prisoners  arrived, 
all  heavily  loaded  with  chains.  But  aU  I  could  learn  vi^as  that  they 
were  sent  in  by  Lieutenant  Baron  von  Otter,  who  had  been  sent  to 
the  promontory  lying  between  the  mouth  of  the  Aruwimi  and  the 
Congo  to  enforce  the  Labour  Ordinances. 

"In  all  the  Basenji  villages  through  which  I  have  passed  on  my 
two  journeys,  the  natives  assert  that  it  takes  them  three  weeks  every 
month  to  find  and  make  their  tale  0}  rubber,  besides  taking  it  once 
every  three  months  to  the  State  post,  from  jour  to  six  days  distant. 

"This  country  is  taxed  to  the  utmost,  not  one  penny  of  the  pro- 
ceeds of  which  is  spent  on  the  roads.  This  condition  of  the  most 
important  highway  in  the  province  is  nothing  less  than  disgraceful, 
and  yet  this  is  the  road  of  which  the  authorities  are  really  proud. 

"Thus,  with  the  exception  of  a  trivial  payment  for  some  things, 
the  Government  carries  on  the  work  of  the  country  at  no  expense 
beyond  the  wages  and  the  European  rations  of  the  white  agents, 
and  these  are  excessively  few  in  number.  It  is  true  there  are 
the  Force  Publique  and  some  travailleurs.  These  are  recruited 
by  conscription  and  receive  pay  and  rations,  but  it  is  at  the 
lowest  possible  rate.     .     . 

"Coming  to  the  Basenji,  the  following  particulars  of  a  village  in 
the  forest  will  show  their  liabilities.  This  village  has  fourteen  adult 
males;  its  neighbour,  which  works  with  it,  the  chiefs  being  brothers, 
has  nine.  Each  man  has  to  take  to  the  State  post  a  large  basket, 
holding  about  twenty-five  pounds  of  rubber,  once  every  month  and 
a  half.  To  get  this  rubber,  though  they  find  it  only  one  day's  journey 
distant,  takes  them  thirty  days.  It  then  takes  them  five  days  to  carry 
it  to  the  State  post,  and  three  days  to  return.  Thus  they  spend 
thirty-eight  days  out  of  forty-five  in  the  compulsory  service  of  the 
State.  For  the  basket  of  rubber  they  receive  i  kilog.  of  salt,  nominally 
worth  I  fr.  The  chief  receives  i  kilog.  of  salt  for  the  whole.  If  the 
rubber  is  deficient  in  quality  or  quantity,  the  man  is  liable  to 
be  whipped  and  imprisoned  without  trial.  As  it  is  supposed  to  be 
the  equivalent  of  the  forty  hours'  monthly  labour,  I  fail  to  see  by 
what  right  the  man  can  be  held  responsible  for  the  quality,  even  if 
he  wilfully  adulterates  it  with  other  substances. 

"The  people  are  all  disheartened,  and  are  unanimously  of  the 
opinion  that  they  were  better  off  under  the  Arabs,  whose  rule  was 
intermittent,  and  from  whom  they  could  run  away.     .     .    . 

"I  must  say  that  during  more  than  nineteen  years'  experience 


I04  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

in  Northern  and  Central  Africa,  I  have  never  seen  such  a  miserably 
poor  lot  as  the  Basenji  in  this  State.    .    .    . 

"It  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  Inspectors,  however  conscientious, 
hard-working,  and  faithful  they  may  be,  cannot  remedy  the  excessive 
impositions  on  the  natives  under  the  present  system.     .     .     . 

"The  grant  of  land  and  seed  to  the  natives  is  of  absolutely  no  use 
to  them,  till  they  are  lejt  time  to  use  them.     .     .     , 

"To  say  that  the  State  cannot  afford  the  expense  is  absurd.  The 
Congo  is  taxed  unmercifully,  and  I  do  not  suppose  any  country  has 
less  money  spent  upon  it.  The  taxpayer  gets  literally  nothing  in 
return  for  the  life  of  practical  slavery  he  has  to  spend  in  the  support 
of  the  Government. 

"If  trade  and  navigation  were  really  free,  and  guarded  by  proper 
police,  German  trade  through  Ujiji,  which  already  exists  to  some 
extent,  might  be  greatly  developed,  as  well  as  that  with  the  British 
colonies  and  Zanzibar. 

"The  operations  of  the  Dutch  traders,  who  up  to  a  few  months 
ago  had  quite  a  considerable  fleet  of  steamers  on  the  Upper  Congo 
and  its  affluents,  and  of  the  French  at  Brazzaville,  and  of  the  Portu- 
guese, would  also  benefit  greatly. 

"All  these  have  practically  disappeared  from  the  Upper  Congo. 

"Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  natives  appeared  to  me  to  be  so  heavily 
taxed  as  to  be  depressed  and  to  regard  themselves  as  practically 
enslaved  by  the  'Bula  Matadi.'  The  incessant  call  for  rubber,  food 
and  labour,  leaves  them  no  respite  nor  peace  of  mind." 

The  following  are  extracts  from  Vice-Consul  Armstrong's  report, 
dated  October,  1906: 

"As  the  result  of  my  journey  through  this  portion  of  the  country, 
I  am  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  condition  of  the  people  in  the 
A.B.I.R.  territory  is  deplorable,  and  although  those  living  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  mission  stations  are,  comparatively  speaking,  safe 
from  ill-treatment  by  the  rubber  agents  and  their  armed  sentries, 
those  in  other  parts  are  subjected  to  the  gravest  abuses. 

"There  is  no  free  labour,  the  natives  being  forced  to  work  at  a 
totally  inadequate  wage.  In  visiting  the  various  rubber-working 
towns,  one  would  expect  to  see  some  signs  of  European  commodities 
that  had  been  given  in  exchange  for  the  millions  of  pounds'  worth  of 
rubber  that  has  been  extracted  from  them,  but  the  native  residents 
possess  actually  nothing  at  all. 


THE  EVIDENCE  UP  TO  DATE  105 

"  Their  conditions  of  living  are  deplorable,  and  the  filth  and  squalor 
of  their  villages  is  only  too  apparent.  The  people  live  in  a  state 
of  uncertainty  as  to  the  advent  0}  police  officers  and  soldiers,  who 
invariably  chase  them  from  their  abodes  and  destroy  their  huts,  and 
for  this  reason  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  better  their  condition  of 
living  by  the  construction  of  suitable  dwellings. 

"  No  change  of  system  to  be  looked  for. 
"  No  change  in  the  existing  system  can  be  looked  for  until  a  more 
reasonable  method  of  taxation  is  adopted.  The  present  system 
permits  the  rubber  agents  to  extract  the  largest  possible  quantity  of 
rubber  from  the  native  at  the  lowest  possible  wage,  and  allows  the 
employment  of  armed  sentries  to  enforce  this  deplorable  system." 

In  these  despatches  Vice-Consul  Armstrong  gives  evidence  of  a 
plot  against  the  sturdy  Mr.  Stannard  upon  the  part  of  the  infamous 
A.B.I.R.  Company.  Their  idea,  no  doubt,  was  to  break  down  his 
health  and  embitter  his  existence  by  successive  law-suits.  In  May 
of  1906,  the  natives  of  a  village  called  Lokongi  rose  up  against  his 
murderous  sentries  and  burned  their  houses.  A  charge  was  at  once 
made  against  Mr.  Stannard  of  having  instigated  them  to  this  very 
natural  and  commendable  action.  Natives  had  been  suborned  or 
terrified  into  giving  evidence  against  him,  and  it  might  have  gone 
ill  with  him  had  it  not  been  for  the  prompt  action  of  the  Consul. 
He  set  off  for  the  village,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Stannard  and  the 
A.B.I.R.  director.  The  natives  were  assembled  and  asked  to  speak 
the  truth.  They  said,  without  hesitation,  that  Mr.  Stannard  had 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter,  but  that  the  representatives  of 
the  company  had  threatened  to  torture  them  unless  they  said  that 
he  had.  The  A.B.I.R.  director  held  his  peace  before  these  revela- 
tions and  had  no  explanation  to  offer.  Consul  Armstrong  then 
pointed  out  to  the  Public  Prosecutor  in  good,  straight  terms,  which  his 
official  superiors  might  well  imitate,  that  the  matter  had  gone  far 
enough,  that  English  patience  was  almost  exhausted,  and  that  Mr. 
Stannard  should  be  baited  no  longer.    The  case  was  dropped. 

I  shall  pass  straight  on  now  to  the  most  recent  reports  received 
from  the  Congo,  to  show  that  there  is  no  difference  at  all  in  the 
general  condition,  so  far  as  it  is  reported  by  the  impartial  men  at 
the  spot,  save  that  the  actual  killings  and  maimings  have  decreased. 
The  great  oppression  and  misery  of  the  people  seem  to  grow  rather 
than  abate.    The  following  extracts  are  from  Consul  Thesiger's 


io6  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

report  of  his  experiences  in  the  Kasai  Company's  district.  This 
company,  it  may  be  worth  remarking,  has  paid  the  enormous  dividend 
of  seven  hundred  per  cent.  The  first  paragraph  may  be  commended 
to  the  consideration  of  those  British  or  American  travellers  who,  on 
the  strength  of  a  flying  visit,  venture  to  contradict  the  experience  of 
those  white  men  who  spend  their  lives  in  the  country: 

"Although  from  the  evidence  of  State  officials  it  has  been  proved 
that  individual  cases  of  abuses  are  not  infrequent  even  at  these  posts, 
the  chance  traveller  will  certainly  see  nothing  of  them,  and  when  he 
judges  of  the  condition  of  the  country  by  what  he  actually  sees  at 
these  stations,  his  opinions  may  be  perfectly  honest,  but  they  are 
absolutely  worthless.  It  is  as  though  some  well-meaning  person, 
who  had  heard  that  a  certain  fashionable  firm  was  making  a  fortune 
by  sweated  labour,  were  to  venture  to  deny  the  facts  because  a  cursory 
visit  to  the  West  End  establishment  showed  that  the  salesmen  behind 
the  counter  were  well-dressed  and  well-nourished,  ignoring  altogether 
the  festering  misery  of  the  sweaters'  dens  in  which  every  article 
sold  over  that  counter  was  made  up." 

After  showing  that  the  Kasai  Company,  in  their  haste  for  wealth 
(and,  perhaps,  in  their  foresight,  as  knowing  that  their  occupancy 
may  be  brought  to  an  end) ,  are  cutting  down  the  rubber  vines  instead 
of  tapping  them  (illegal,  of  course,  but  what  does  that  matter  where 
Belgian  Concessionnaires  are  in  question),  goes  on  to  show  the 
pressure  on  the  people: 

"The  work  is  compulsory;  it  is  also  incessant.  The  vines  have 
to  be  sought  out  in  the  forest,  cut  down  and  disentangled  from  the 
high-growing  branches,  divided  into  lengths,  and  carried  home. 
This  operation  has  to  be  continually  repeated,  as  no  man  can  carry 
a  larger  quantity  of  the  heavy  vine  lengths  than  will  keep  him  occupied 
for  two  or  three  days.  Accidents  are  frequent,  especially  among  the 
Bakuba,  who  are  large-built  men,  hunters  and  agriculturists  by 
nature,  and  unaccustomed  to  tree  climbing.  Large  as  the  Bakuba 
villages  still  are,  the  population  is  diminishing.  Here  there  is  no 
sleeping  sickness  to  account  for  the  decrease,  there  have  been  no 
epidemics  of  late  years;  exposure,  overwork,  and  shortage  of  proper 
food  alone  are  responsible  for  it.  The  Bakuba  district  was  formerly 
one  of  the  richest  food-producing  regions  in  the  country,  maize  and 
millet  being  the  staple  crops,  together  with  manioc  and  other  plants. 


THE  EVIDENCE  UP  TO  DATE  107 

So  much  so  was  this  the  case  that  the  mission  at  Luebo  used  to  send 
there  to  buy  maize.  Under  the  present  regime  the  villagers  are  not 
allowed  to  waste  in  cultivating,  hunting  or  fishing  —  time  which 
should  be  occupied  in  making  rubber. 

"In  a  few  villages  they  were  cultivating  by  stealth  small  patches 
in  the  forest,  where  they  were  supposed  to  be  out  cutting  the  rubber 
vines;  but  everywhere  else  it  was  the  same  story:  the  capitas  would 
not  allow  them  time  to  clear  new  ground  for  cultivation,  or  permit 
them  to  hunt  or  fish;  if  they  tried  to  do  so  their  nets  and  implements 
were  destroyed.  The  majority  of  the  capitas,  when  questioned, 
acknowledged  quite  frankly  that  they  had  orders  to  that  effect. 
These  villages  are  living  on  the  produce  of  the  old  manioc  fields, 
and  are  buying  food  from  the  Bakette.  Under  these  circumstances 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  population  is  diminishing.  As  one 
woman  expressed  it:  'The  men  go  out  hungry  into  the  forest;  when 
they  come  back  they  get  sick  and  die.'  The  village  of  Ibunge,  where 
formerly  the  largest  market  of  the  district  was  held  weekly,  now 
consists  of  a  collection  of  hovels,  eight  of  which  are  habitable,  and 
the  market  is  all  but  dead." 

So  the  capitas  are  at  their  old  work  the  same  as  ever.  The  Congo 
idea  of  reforming  them  has  always  been  to  change  their  name  — 
so  by  calling  a  burglar  a  policeman  a  great  reformation  is  effected. 

Read,  however,  the  following  passage,  which  shows  that  if  the 
capita  is  the  same,  so  also  is  the  agent.  The  white  race  is  certainly 
superior,  for  when  the  savage  sentry's  heart  relented  the  white  man 
was  able  to  scourge  him  back  to  his  inhuman  task: 

"Once  I  had  got  outside  the  zone  surrounding  Ibanj,  where  the 
villages  are  not  taxed  in  rubber,  I  found  the  capitas,  with  very  few 
exceptions,  were  all  armed  with  cap-guns.  I  met  them  frequently, 
escorting  the  rubber  caravans  to  the  company  post,  or  going  from 
village  to  village  collecting  the  rubber  from  the  centres  under  their 
charge  and  distributing  the  trade  goods  for  the  coming  month.  I 
noticed  that  they  invariably  carried  their  guns,  and,  in  fact,  I  have 
seldom  seen  a  capita  stir  outside  his  own  home  without  his  gun. 
These  are  the  men  who  are  appointed  by  the  Kasia  Company  agents 
to  enforce  the  rubber  tax.  Chosen  always  from  a  different  race, 
they  have  no  sympathy  with  the  natives  placed  under  them,  and 
having  the  authority  of  the  agent  behmd  them  they  can  do  as  they 
please,  so  long  as  they  insure  the  rubber  being  brought  at  the  proper 


io8  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

times  and  in  sufficient  quantities.  In  the  villages  they  are  absolute 
masters,  and  the  villagers  have  to  supply  them  gratis  with  a  house, 
food,  palm  wine,  and  a  woman.  They  exercise  freely  the  right 
of  beating  or  imprisoning  the  villagers  for  any  imaginary  offences 
or  for  neglecting  their  work  in  any  way,  and  even  go  as  far  as  imposing 
fines  in  cowries  on  their  own  account,  and  confiscating  for  their  own 
use  the  cowries  paid  over  by  the  plaintiff  or  defendant's  family  in  the 
case  of  trial  by  poison,  which,  in  spite  of  statements  to  the  contrary 
recently  made  in  the  Belgian  Chamber,  are  of  frequent  occurrence 
in  this  country.  The  native  cannot  complain  or  obtain  satisfaction  in 
any  way,  as  the  capita  acts  in  the  name  of  the  company,  and  the 
company's  agent  is  always  threatening  them  in  the  name  of  *Bula- 
Matadi.'  If  the  authorities  wish  to  act  in  the  matter,  they  might 
profitably  make  inquiry  into  the  doings  of  the  capitas  at  Bungueh, 
Bolong,  and  into  those  of  the  Zappo  Zap  capita,  who  appears  to 
exercise  the  chief  control  over  the  villages  near  Ibunge,  though  he 
does  not  live  in  the  latter  town.  These  appear  to  me  to  be  among 
the  worst  where  most  are  bad.  The  capitas,  however,  are  scarcely 
to  be  blamed,  as,  if  they  do  not  extort  enough  rubber,  they  are  liable 
in  their  turn  to  suffer  at  the  hands  of  the  agent.  Witness  a  case  at 
Sangela,  when  it  was  reported  that  the  capita  had  some  time  back 
been  chicotted  in  the  village  itself  by  the  agent  for  not  bringing  in 
rubber  sufficient.  Endless  cases  could  be  quoted,  but  these  will 
probably  be  sufficient  to  show  the  methods  pursued  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Kasai  Company.  Yet  in  a  letter  dated  the  eighth  of  March, 
1908,  we  find  Dr.  Dreypondt  writing  reproachfully: 

"  'You  know  we  have  no  armed  sentries,  but  only  tradesmen 
going,  with  goods  of  every  kind,  and  unarmed,  through  the  villages 
for  the  purchasing  of  rubber.  We  use  only  one  trading  principle 
—  Voffre  et  la  demande.''  " 

The  laws  at  all  points  are  completely  ignored,  "and  many  of 
the  agents  not  only  punish  the  natives  in  these  ways  themselves, 
but  allow  their  capitas  the  same  privileges.  It  is  only  by  these 
means  that  the  natives  can  be  kept  at  their  incessant  work." 

Suicide  is  not  natural  with  African,  as  it  is  with  some  Oriental 
races.     But  it  has  come  in  with  the  other  blessings  of  King  Leopold. 

"At  Ibanj,  for  instance,  only  a  day's  march  from  a  State  post, 
two  Bakette  from  the  village  of  Baka-Tomba  were  not  long  ago 


THE  EVIDENCE  UP  TO  DATE  109 

imprisoned  for  shortage  of  rubber,  and  were  daily  taken  out  under 
the  charge  of  an  armed  native  to  work  in  the  fields  with  ropes  round 
their  necks.  One  of  them,  tired  of  captivity,  pretended  one  day 
that  he  saw  some  animal  in  a  tree  and  obtained  leave  from  the  guard 
to  try  and  get  it.  He  climbed  the  tree,  tied  the  rope  which  was 
round  his  neck  to  a  branch  and  hung  himself.  He  was  cut  down, 
and,  after  a  considerable  time,  was  resuscitated,  thanks  to  the  medical 
experience  of  one  of  the  missionaries.  I  was  able  to  question  the 
man  myself  at  his  village,  and  the  story  was  also  conj&rmed  by  the 
Capita." 

The  American  flag  presents  no  refuge  for  the  persecuted. 

"About  the  same  time  this  same  man  had  the  effrontery  to  take 
some  seven  armed  natives  on  to  the  station  of  the  American  mission, 
during  the  absence  of  the  missionaries,  and  demand  from  the  native 
who  was  left  in  charge  that  he  should  hand  over  to  him  a  native,  not 
in  his  own  employ,  who  had  run  away  in  consequence  of  some  dis- 
pute, and  who  he  declared  was  hiding  at  the  mission.  The  overseer, 
a  Sierra  Leone  man,  very  rightly  declared  his  inability  to  do  so,  and 
said  he  must  await  the  return  of  the  missionaries.  An  altercation 
followed,  and  the  agent  struck  him  twice  in  the  face.  The  man 
being  a  British  subject,  I  told  him  if  he  chose  to  prosecute  I  would 
support  him,  or  else  I  would  insist  on  the  agent  paying  him  an  indem- 
nity in  cloth.  As  a  prosecution  would  have  entailed  his  going  to 
Lusambo,  a  fifteen  days'  journey,  with  every  prospect  of  being  kept 
there  some  four  to  six  months  with  all  the  witnesses  while  awaiting 
the  hearing  of  his  case,  he  chose  the  latter  method.  The  cloth 
was  paid." 

He  continues: 

"These  cases  can  all  be  substantiated,  and  are  typical  of  a  certain 
class  of  agent  which  is  unfortunately,  although  not  general,  far  too 
common.  Numerous  complaints  were  also  made  to  me  in  different 
villages  against  an  agent,  not  only  that  he  beat  and  imprisoned  the 
natives  for  shortage  of  rubber,  but  also  that  he  obliged  them  to  supply 
him  with  alcohol  distilled  from  palm  wine,  and  was  in  the  habit  of 
taking  any  of  the  village  women  that  struck  his  fancy  at  the  weekly 
market  held  on  or  near  his  own  post.  The  Company,  I  believe, 
promised  the  American  mission  last  May  that  this  man  should  be 
removed,  but  when  I  passed  through  he  was  still  there.     Placed  in 


no        THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

the  power  of  men  like  these  the  natives  dare  not  complain  to  the 
authorities,  and  are  entirely  helpless." 

Nominally  the  Company  makes  no  punitive  expeditions.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  they  have  engaged  Lukenga,  a  warlike  chief  of  the 
neighbourhood,  to  do  it  for  them.  Nominally  the  capitas  are  not 
supplied  with  guns.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they  all  carry  guns,  which 
are  declared  to  be  their  personal  property.  At  every  comer  one 
meets  hypocrisy  and  evasion  of  law. 

Speaking  of  the  Bakuba,  the  Consul  says: 

"Although  not  wanting  in  physical  courage  or  strength,  they  are 
rather  an  agricultural  than  a  warlike  race,  and  their  villages  were 
formerly  noted  for  their  well-built  and  artistically  decorated  houses 
and  their  well-cultivated  fields. 

"It  is,  however,  their  misfortune  to  live  in  a  forest  country  rich 
in  rubber  vines,  and  they  have  consequently  come  under  the  curse 
of  the  concessionary  Company  in  the  shape  of  the  Kasai  Trust. 
As  a  result  their  native  industries  are  dying  out,  their  houses  and 
fields  are  neglected,  and  the  population  is  not  only  decreasing,  but 
also  sinking  to  the  dead-level  of  the  less  advanced  and  less  capable 
races. 

"There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Bakuba  are  the  most  oppressed  race 
to-day  in  the  Kasai.  Harassed  by  their  own  king  in  the  interest 
of  the  Rubber  Company,  driven  by  the  agents  and  their  capitas, 
disarmed  and  deprived  even  of  the  most  ordinary  rights,  they  will, 
if  nothing  is  done  to  help  them,  sink  to  the  level  of  the  vicious  and 
degraded  Bakette. 

"  One  asks  oneself  in  vain  what  benefits  these  people  have  gained 
from  the  boasted  civilization  of  the  Free  State.  One  looks  in  vain 
for  any  attempt  to  benefit  them  or  to  recompense  them  in  any  way 
for  the  enormous  wealth  which  they  are  helping  to  pour  into  the 
Treasury  of  the  State.  Their  native  industries  are  being  destroyed, 
their  freedom  has  been  taken  from  them,  and  their  numbers  are 
decreasing. 

"The  only  efforts  made  to  civilize  them  have  been  made  by  the 
missionaries,  who  are  hampered  at  every  turn." 

Consul  Thesiger  winds  up  with  the  remark  that  as  the  Company 
has  behaved  illegally  at  every  turn  it  has  forfeited  all  claims  to  con- 
sideration and  that  there  is  no  hope  for  the  country  so  long  as  it 


THE  EVIDENCE  UP  TO  DATE  in 

exists.  Straight  words  —  but  how  much  more  forcibly  do  they 
apply  to  that  Congo  State  of  which  these  particular  companies  are 
merely  an  outcome.  Until  it  is  swept  from  the  map  there  is  no  hope 
for  the  country.  You  cannot  avoid  the  rank  products  while  the 
putridity  remains. 

The  next  document  bearing  upon  the  question  is  from  the  Rev. 
H.  M.  Whiteside,  from  the  notorious  A.B.I.R.  district.  I  give  it  in 
full,  that  the  reader  may  judge  for  himself  how  far  the  direct  Belgian 
rule  has  altered  the  situation. 

"I  should  like  to  bring  to  your  notice  a  few  facts  regarding  the 
condition  of  this  (A.B.I.R.)  district. 

"After  this  extensive  journey  made  through  the  district  recently, 
and  particularly  the  Bompona  neighbourhood,  I  found  the  people 
working  rubber  in  all  the  towns  visited  with  the  exception  of  those 
taxed  in  provisions. 

"It  is  difficult  to  know  which  'tax,'  rubber  or  provisions,  is  hardest. 
The  rubber  workers  implored  us  to  free  them  from  rubber,  and  at 
one  village  upon  our  departure  they  followed  us  a  considerable 
distance,  and  it  was  difficult  to  get  away  from  them.  The  amount 
of  rubber  collected  is  small  compared  with  what  was  formerly 
demanded,  but  I  have  no  doubt  it  requires  one-third  of  the  time 
of  the  people  to  collect  it.  Many  of  the  people  of  the  villages  behind 
Bompona  were  away  collecting  rubber.  We  met  many  of  the  lonji 
people  in  the  forest,  either  actually  engaged  in  their  work  or  hunting 
for  a  district  where  the  vines  might  have  escaped  other  collectors. 
We  also  met  other  villagers  in  the  bush  in  quest  of  rubber.  Almost 
all  the  village  migrates  to  the  forest  —  men,  many  women  and 
children  —  when  rubber  is  required. 

"  In  the  light  of  these  facts,  how  worthless  are  the  assertions  that 
rubber  'tax'  has  been  stopped  in  the  A.B.I.R.  territory. 

"With  regard  to  the  provision  tax,  it  was  difficult  to  get  any  data, 
but  it  is  easy  for  one  to  see  the  oppressed  condition  of  the  people 
when  one  comes  into  contact  with  them.  Between  the  provision 
tax,  porterage  and  paddlers,  I  believe  that  the  people  of  Bompona 
have  got  very  little  time  to  themselves.  There  is  one  thing  that 
one  cannot  help  seeing,  viz.,  the  mean,  miserable  appearance  of  the 
people  residing  around  the  State  post  of  Bompona.  The  houses 
or  huts  are  in  keeping  with  the  owners  of  them.  A  very  small  bale 
of  cloth  could  take  the  place  of  all  I  saw  worn.    In  all  the  district 


112  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

I  never  saw  a  single  brass  rod,  nor  any  domestic  animals  except 

a  few  miserable  chickens.    The  extreme  poverty  of  the  people  is 

most  remarkable.    There  is  no  doubt  as  to  their  desire  to  possess 

European  goods,  but  they  have  nothing  with  which  to  buy  except 

rubber  and  ivory,  which  is  claimed  by  the  State. 

"It  may  be  thought  that  I  am  painting  their  condition  in  too  dark 

colours,  but  I  feel  it  requires  strong  words  to  give  a  fair  idea  of  the 

utter  hopelessness  and  abject  appearance  of  the  people  of  Bompona, 

of  the  people  of  the  villages  behind  the  State  post  some  twenty-five 

miles  away,  and  in  a  lesser  degree  of  the  rubber  workers  opposite 

Bompona. 

,,Ti  "H.  M.  Whiteside. 

"Ikau, 

"June  15th,  1909." 

Finally,  there  is  the  following  report  from  the  extreme  other  end 
of  the  country.  It  is  dated  June  ist,  1909.  The  name  of  the  sender, 
though  not  published,  was  sent  to  the  Foreign  Office.  He  is  an 
American  citizen: 

"I  am  sorry  to  say  there  is  need  for  agitation  for  the  reform  of 
the  Belgian  Kwango  territory  along  this  frontier.  Robbing  and 
murder  are  still  being  carried  on  under  the  rule  of  the  Belgian  official 
from  Popocabacca.  Last  month  he  came  with  an  armed  force  to 
the  district  of  Mpangala  Nlele,  two  days  west  of  here,  to  decorate 
with  the  Congo  medal  a  new  chief  in  the  stead  of  our  old  friend 
Nlekani.  Nlekani  left  a  number  of  sons,  but  none  of  them  were 
willing  to  take  the  responsibility  of  the  Medal  Chieftainship.  They, 
therefore,  placed  their  villages  under  the  authority  of  a  powerful 
chief  living  to  the  north  of  them. 

"The  official  of  the  Congo  Government  had  been  insisting  for  a 
year  that  a  younger  son  of  the  old  chief  should  consent  to  be  the 
Medal  Chief.  This  young  man,  named  Kingeleza,  was  a  fine,  bright 
fellow,  but  thinking  that,  as  a  younger  son,  he  would  lack  the  necessary 
authority  over  the  people  and  would  get  into  trouble  with  the  Govern- 
ment if  he  could  not  satisfy  its  requirements,  he  declined.  The 
Belgian  official  was,  however,  so  insistent  that  Kingeleza  had  finally 
agreed  in  order  to  avoid  a  clash  with  the  Government. 

"  On  his  way  to  make  the  *  investiture,'  the  Belgian  official  robbed 
some  villages  and  killed  two  men.  Kingeleza's  people,  who  had 
gathered  together  to  witness  the  investiture,  hearing  of  the  treatment 


THE  EVIDENCE  UP  TO  DATE  113 

meted  out  to  the  other  villages,  took  fright  and  fled  from  their  own 
villages,  which  the  Belgians,  upon  arriving,  found  deserted.  Where- 
upon the  soldiers  proceeded  to  ferret  the  fugitives  out  of  the  woods, 
where  they  were  hiding.  Twenty  were  seized,  among  whom  was 
one  of  Kingeleza's  sisters,  a  young  and  attractive  looking  girl.  Four 
of  the  villagers  were  subsequently  released,  and  the  balance  maiched 
off  with  other  spoils  to  Popocabacca.  The  evangelist  attached  to  the 
American  mission,  who  was  absent  in  the  Lower  Congo,  had  his 
house  broken  open  and  a  tent  and  school  materials  carried  off. 

"As  for  Kingeleza,  some  of  the  Belgian  soldiers  met  him  in  the 
path  and  shot  him.  They  did  not  know  that  he  was  Kingeleza,  and 
Kingeleza  is  still  being  sought  for  by  the  Belgian  official. 

"This  same  'Chief  of  Brigands,'  as  I  prefer  to  call  him,  has  just 
been  on  another  raid  for  which  he  even  entered  Portuguese  territory 
within  a  few  hours  of  where  I  am  writing,  wantonly  destroying  all 
that  he  could  not  carry  off.  The  people  had,  happily,  all  escaped 
before  he  arrived.  The  Portuguese  are  reporting  this  outrage  to 
the  Governor-General  at  Loanda." 


xn 

THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION 

1HAVE  not  in  this  statement  touched  upon  the  financial  side 
of  the  Congo  State.  A  huge  scandal  lies  there  —  so  huge 
that  the  limits  of  it  have  not  yet  been  defined.  I  will  not  go 
into  that  morass.  If  Belgians  wish  to  be  hoodwinked  in  the  matter, 
and  to  have  their  good  name  compromised  in  finance  as  well  as  in 
morality,  it  is  they  who  in  the  end  will  suffer.  One  may  merely 
indicate  the  main  points,  that  during  the  independent  life  of  the 
Congo  State  all  accounts  have  been  kept  secret,  that  no  budgets  of 
the  last  year  but  only  estimates  of  the  coming  one  have  ever  been 
published,  that  the  State  has  made  huge  gains,  in  spite  of  which  it 
has  borrowed  money,  and  that  the  great  sums  resulting  have  been 
laid  out  in  speculations  in  China  and  elsewhere,  that  sums  amounting 
in  the  aggregate  to  at  least  ;/^7,ooo,ooo  of  money  have  been  traced 
to  the  King,  and  that  this  money  has  been  spent  partly  in  buildings 
in  Belgium,  partly  in  land  in  the  same  country,  partly  in  building 
on  the  Riviera,  partly  in  the  corruption  of  public  men,  and  of  the 
European  and  American  Press  (our  own  being  not  entirely  untar- 
nished, I  fear),  and,  finally,  in  the  expenses  of  such  a  private  life 
as  has  made  King  Leopold's  name  notorious  throughout  Europe. 
Of  the  guilty  companies  the  poorest  seem  to  pay  fifty  and  the  richest 
seven  hundred  per  cent,  per  annum.  There  I  will  leave  this  unsav- 
oury side  of  the  master.  It  is  to  humanity  that  I  appeal,  and  that 
is  concerned  with  higher  things. 

Before  ending  my  task,  however,  I  would  give  a  short  account 
of  the  evolution  of  the  political  situation  as  it  affected,  first,  Great 
Britain  and  the  Congo  State;  secondly,  Great  Britain  and  Belgium. 
In  each  case  Great  Britain  was,  indeed,  the  spokesman  of  the  civilized 
world. 

So  far  as  one  can  trace,  no  strong  protest  was  raised  by  the  British 
Government  at  the  time  when  the  Congo  State  took  the  fatal  step, 
the  direct  cause  of  everything  which  has  followed,  of  leaving  the 

114 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  115 

honest  path,  trodden  up  to  that  time  by  all  European  Colonies,  and 
seizing  the  land  of  the  country  as  their  own.  Only  in  1896  do  we 
find  protests  against  the  ill-usage  of  British  coloured  subjects,  ending 
in  a  statement  in  Parliament  from  Mr.  Chamberlain  that  no  further 
recruiting  would  be  allowed.  For  the  first  time  we  had  shown  our- 
selves in  sharp  disagreement  with  the  policy  of  the  Congo  State.  In 
April,  1897,  a  debate  was  raised  on  Congo  affairs  by  Sir  Charles 
Dilke  without  any  definite  result. 

Our  own  troubles  in  South  Africa  (troubles  which  called  forth 
in  Belgium  a  burst  of  indignation  against  wholly  imaginary  British 
outrages  during  the  war)  left  us  little  time  to  fulfil  our  Treaty  obliga- 
tions toward  the  natives  on  the  Congo.  In  1903  the  matter  forced 
itself  to  the  front  again,  and  a  considerable  debate  took  place  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  which  ended  by  passing  a  resolution  with  almost 
complete  unanimity  to  the  following  effect: 

"That  the  Government  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  having,  at  its 
inception,  guaranteed  to  the  Powers  that  its  native  subjects  should 
be  governed  with  humanity,  and  that  no  trading  monopoly  or  privilege 
should  be  permitted  within  its  dominions;  this  House  requests  His 
Majesty's  Government  to  confer  with  the  other  Powers,  signatories 
of  the  Berlin  General  Act,  by  virtue  of  which  the  Congo  Free  State 
exists,  in  order  that  measures  may  be  adopted  to  abate  the  evils 
prevalent  in  that  State." 

In  July  of  the  same  year  there  occurred  the  famous  three  days' 
debate  in  the  Belgian  House,  which  was  really  inaugurated  by  the 
British  resolution.  In  this  debate  the  two  brave  Reformers,  Vander- 
velde  and  Lorand,  though  crushed  by  the  voting  power  of  their 
opponents,  bore  off  all  the  honours  of  war.  M.  de  Favereau,  the 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  alternately  explained  that  there  was  no 
connection  at  all  between  Belgium  and  the  Congo  State,  and  that 
it  was  a  breach  of  Belgian  patriotism  to  attack  the  latter.  The 
policy  of  the  Congo  State  was  upheld  and  defended  by  the  Belgian 
Government  in  a  way  which  must  forever  identify  them  with  all  the 
crimes  which  I  have  recounted.  No  member  of  the  Congo  adminis- 
tration could  ever  have  expressed  the  intimate  spirit  of  Congo  admin- 
istration so  concisely  as  M.  de  Smet  de  Naeyer,  when  he  said,  speaking 
of  the  natives:  "They  are  not  entitled  to  anything.  What  is  given 
them  is  a  pure  gratuity."  Was  there  ever  in  the  world  such  an 
utterance  as  that  from  a  responsible  statesman!    In  1885  a  State 


ii6  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

is  formed  for  the  "moral  and  material  improvement  of  the  native 
races."  In  1903  the  native  "is  not  entitled  to  anything."  The  two 
phrases  mark  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  King  Leopold's  journey. 

In  1904  the  British  Government  showed  its  continued  uneasiness 
and  disgust  at  the  state  of  affairs  on  the  Congo  by  publishing  the 
truly  awful  report  of  Consul  Casement.  This  document,  circulated 
officially  all  over  the  globe,  must  have  opened  the  eyes  of  the  nations, 
if  any  were  still  shut,  to  the  true  object  and  development  of  King 
Leopold's  enterprise.  It  was  hoped  that  this  action  upon  the  part 
of  Great  Britain  would  be  the  first  step  toward  intervention,  and, 
indeed.  Lord  Lansdowne  made  it  clear  in  so  many  words  that  our 
hand  was  outstretched,  and  that  if  any  other  nation  chose  to  grasp  it, 
we  would  proceed  together  to  the  task  of  compulsory  reform.  It 
is  not  to  the  credit  of  the  civilized  nations  that  not  one  was  ready 
to  answer  the  appeal.  If,  finally,  we  are  forced  to  move  alone, 
they  cannot  say  that  we  did  not  ask  and  desire  their  co-operation. 

From  this  date  remonstrances  were  frequent  from  the  British 
Government,  though  they  inadequately  represented  the  anger  and 
impatience  of  those  British  subjects  who  were  aware  of  the  true  state 
of  affairs.  The  British  Government  refrained  from  going  to  extremes 
because  it  was  understood  that  there  would  shortly  be  a  Belgian 
annexation,  and  it  was  hoped  that  this  would  mark  the  beginning  of 
better  things  without  the  necessity  for  our  intervention.  Delay 
followed  delay,  and  nothing  was  done.  A  Liberal  Government  was 
as  earnest  upon  the  matter  as  its  Unionist  predecessor,  but  still  the 
diplomatic  etiquette  delayed  them  from  coming  to  a  definite  con- 
clusion. Note  followed  note,  while  a  great  population  was  sinking 
into  slavery  and  despair.  In  August,  1906,  Sir  Edward  Grey  declared 
that  we  "could  not  wait  forever,"  and  yet  we  see  that  he  is  waiting 
still.  In  1908  the  long  looked-for  annexation  came  at  last,  and  the 
Congo  State  exchanged  the  blue  flag  with  the  golden  star  for  the 
tricolour  of  Belgium.  Immediate  and  radical  reforms  were  promised, 
but  the  matter  ended  as  all  previous  promises  have  done.  In  1909 
M.  Renkin,  the  Belgian  Colonial  Minister,  went  out  to  inspect  the 
Congo  State,  and  had  the  frankness  before  going  to  say  that  nothing 
would  be  changed  there.  This  assurance  he  repeated  at  Boma, 
with  a  flourish  about  the  "genial  monarch"  who  presided  over 
their  destinies.  By  the  time  this  pamphlet  is  printed  M.  Renkin 
will  be  back,  no  doubt  with  the  usual  talk  of  minor  reforms,  which 
will  take  another  year  to  produce,  and  will  be  utterly  futile  when 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  117 

reduced  to  practice.  But  the  world  has  seen  this  game  too  often. 
Surely  it  will  not  be  made  a  fool  of  again.  There  is  some  limit  to 
European  patience. 

Meanwhile,  in  this  very  month  of  August,  1909,  a  full  year  after 
the  annexation  by  Belgium  (an  annexation,  be  it  mentioned,  which 
will  not  be  officially  recognized  by  Great  Britain  until  she  is  satisfied 
in  the  matter  of  reforms).  Prince  Albert,  the  heir  to  the  throne,  has 
returned  from  the  Congo.    He  says: 

"The  Congo  is  a  marvellous  country,  which  offers  unlimited 
resources  to  men  of  enterprise.  In  my  opinion  our  colony  will 
be  an  important  factor  in  the  welfare  of  our  country,  whatever 
sacrifices  we  will  have  to  make  for  its  development.  What  we 
must  do  is  to  work  for  the  moral  regeneration  of  the  natives,  ameliorate 
their  material  situation,  suppress  the  scourge  of  sleeping  sickness, 
and  build  new  railways." 

"Moral  regeneration  of  the  natives!"  Moral  regeneration  of 
his  own  family  and  of  his  own  country  —  that  is  what  the  situation 
demands. 


XIII 

SOME  CONGOLESE  APOLOGIES 

IT  ONLY  remains  to  examine  some  of  the  Congolese  attempts 
to  answer  the  unanswerable.    It  is  but  fair  to  hear  the  other 
side,  and  I  will  set  down  such  points  as   they  advance  as 
clearly  as  I  can: 

1.  —  That  the  Congo  State  is  independent  and  that  it  is  no  one 
else's  business  what  occurs  within  its  borders. 

I  have,  I  trust,  clearly  shown  that  by  the  Berlin  Treaty  of  1885 
the  State  was  formed  on  certain  conditions,  and  that  these  conditions 
as  affecting  both  trade  and  the  natives  have  not  been  fulfilled.  There- 
fore we  have  the  right  to  interfere.  Apart  from  the  Treaty  this 
right  might  be  claimed  on  the  general  grounds  of  humanity,  as  has 
been  done  more  than  once  with  Turkey. 

2.  —  That  the  French  Congo  is  as  bad,  and  that  we  do  not  interfere. 

The  French  Colonial  system  has  usually  been  excellent,  and  there 
is,  therefore,  every  reason  to  believe  that  this  one  result  of  evil  example 
will  soon  be  amended.  There,  at  least,  we  have  no  Treaty  obligation 
to  interfere. 

3.  —  That  the  English  agitation  is  due  to  jealousy  of  Belgian 
success. 

We  do  not  look  upon  it  as  success,  but  the  most  stupendous  failure 
in  history.  What  is  there  to  be  jealous  of?  Is  it  the  making  of 
money  ?  But  we  could  do  the  same  at  once  in  any  tropical  Colony  if 
we  stooped  to  the  same  methods. 

4.  —  That  it  is  a  plot  of  the  Liverpool  merchants. 

This  legend  had  its  origin  in  the  fact  that  Mr.  Morel,  the  leader 
and  hero  of  the  cause,  was  in  business  in  Liverpool,  and  was  after- 
ward elected  to  be  a  member  of  the  Liverpool  Chamber  of  Com- 

118 


SOME  CONGOLESE  APOLOGIES  119 

merce.  There  is,  indeed,  a  connection  between  Liverpool  and  the 
movement,  because  it  was  while  engaged  in  the  shipping  trade  there 
that  Mr.  Morel  was  brought  into  connection  with  the  persons  and  the 
facts  which  moved  him  to  generous  indignation,  and  started  him  upon 
the  long  struggle  which  he  has  so  splendidly  and  unselfishly  main- 
tained. As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  business  men  in  England  have  very 
good  reason  to  take  action  against  a  system  which  has  kept  their 
commerce  out  of  a  country  which  was  declared  to  be  open  to  inter- 
national trade.  But  of  all  towns  Liverpool  has  the  least  reason  to 
complain,  as  it  is  the  centre  of  that  shipping  line  which  (alas!  that  any 
English  line  should  do  so)  conveys  the  Congo  rubber  from  Boma  to 
Antwerp. 

5.  —  That  it  is  a  Protestant  scheme  in  order  to  gain  an  advantage 
over  the  Catholic  missions. 

In  all  British  Colonies  Catholic  missions  may  be  founded  and 
developed  without  any  hindrance.  If  the  Congo  were  British  to-mor- 
row, no  Catholic  church,  or  school  would  be  disturbed.  What  advan- 
tage, then,  would  the  Protestants  gain  by  any  change  ?  These  charges 
are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  borne  out  by  Catholics  as  well  as  by  Protestants. 
Father  Vermeersch  is  as  fervid  as  any  English  or  American  pastor. 

6.  —  That  travellers  who  have  passed  through  the  country,  and 
others  who  reside  in  the  country,  have  seen  no  trace  0}  outrages. 

Such  a  defence  reminds  one  of  the  ancient  pleasantry  of  the  man 
who,  being  accused  on  the  word  of  three  men  who  were  present  and 
saw  him  do  the  crime,  declared  that  the  balance  of  evidence  was  in 
his  favour,  since  he  was  prepared  to  produce  ten  men  who  were  not 
present  and  did  not  see  it.  Of  the  white  people  who  live  in  the  coun- 
try the  great  majority  are  in  the  Lower  Congo,  which  is  not  affected 
by  the  murderous  rubber  traffic.  Their  evidence  is  beside  the  ques- 
tion. When  a  traveller  passes  up  the  main  river  his  advent  is  known 
and  all  is  ready  for  him.  Captain  Boyd  Alexander  passed,  as  I 
understand,  along  the  frontier,  where  naturally  one  would  expect  the 
best  conditions,  since  a  discontented  tribe  has  only  to  cross  the  line. 
To  show  the  fallacy  of  such  reasoning  I  would  instance  the  case  of  the 
Reverend  John  Howell,  who  for  many  years  travelled  on  one  of  the 
mission  boats  upon  the  main  river  and  during  that  time  never  saw  an 
outrage.  No  doubt  he  had  formed  the  opinion  that  his  brethren  had 
been  exaggerating.    Then  one  day  he  heard  an  outburst  of  firing,  and 


I20  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

turned  his  little  steamer  to  the  spot.  This  is  what  he  saw:  "They 
were  horrified  to  find  the  native  soldiers  of  the  Government  under 
the  eyes  of  their  white  officers  engaged  in  mutilating  the  dead  bodies 
of  the  natives  who  had  just  been  killed.  Three  native  bodies  were 
lying  near  the  river's  edge  and  human  limbs  were  lying  within  a  few 
yards  from  the  steamer.  A  State  soldier  was  seen  drawing  away  the 
legs  and  other  portions  of  a  human  body.  Another  soldier  was  seen 
standing  by  a  large  basket  in  which  were  the  viscera  of  a  human  body. 
The  missionaries  were  promptly  ordered  off  the  beach  by  the  two 
officers  presiding  over  this  human  shambles."  And  this  was  on  the 
main  river,  twenty  years  after  the  European  occupation. 

7.  —  That  land  has  been  claimed  by  Government  in  Uganda  and  other 
British  Colonies. 

Where  land  has  been  so  claimed,  it  has  been  worked  by  free  labour 
for  the  benefit  of  the  African  community  itself,  and  not  for  the  purpose 
of  sending  the  proceeds  to  Europe.    This  is  a  vital  distinction. 

8.  —  Thai  odious  incidents  occur  in  all  Colonies. 

It  is  true  that  no  Colonial  system  is  always  free  from  such  reproach. 

But  the  object  of  the  normal  European  system  is  to  discourage  and 
to  punish  such  abuses,  especially  if  they  occur  in  high  places.  I  have 
already  given  the  instance  of  Eyre,  Governor  of  Jamaica,  who  was 
tried  for  his  life  in  England  because  he  had  executed  a  half-caste 
at  a  time  when  there  was  actual  revolt  among  the  black  population, 
of  which  he  was  the  leader.  Germany  also  has  not  hesitated  to  bring 
to  the  bar  of  Justice  any  of  her  officers  who  have  lowered  her  prestige 
by  their  conduct  in  the  tropics.  But  in  the  Congo,  after  twenty 
years  of  unexampled  horror  and  brutality,  not  one  single  officer 
above  the  rank  of  a  simple  clerk  has  ever  been  condemned,  or  even,  so 
far  as  I  can  learn,  tried  for  conduct  which,  had  they  been  British, 
would  assuredly  have  earned  them  the  gallows.  What  chance  would 
Lothaire  or  Le  Jeune  have  before  a  Middlesex  jury  ?  There  lies  the 
difference  between  the  systems. 

9.  —  That  the  British  charges  did  not  begin  until  the  Congo  became 

a  flourishing  State. 

Since  the  Congo's  wealth  sprang  from  this  barbarous  system,  it 
is  natural  that  they  both  attracted  attention  at  the  same  time.  Rising 
wealth  meant  a  more  rigidly  enforced  system. 


SOME  CONGOLESE  APOLOGIES  121 

10.  —  That  the  Congo  State  deserves  great  credit  jor  having  pro- 
hibited the  sale  of  alcohol  to  the  natives. 

It  is  true  that  the  sale  of  alcohol  to  natives  should  be  forbidden  in 
all  parts  of  Africa.  It  is  caused  by  the  competition  of  trade.  If  a 
chief  desires  gin  for  his  ivory,  it  is  clear  that  the  nation  which  supplies 
that  gin  will  get  the  trade,  and  that  which  refuses  will  lose  it.  This 
by  way  of  explanation,  not  of  apology.  But  as  there  is  no  trade 
competition  in  the  Congo,  they  have  no  reason  to  introduce 
alcohol,  which  would  simply  detract  from  the  quality  and  value 
of  their  slave  population.  When  compared  with  the  absolute 
immorality  of  other  Congo  proceedings,  it  is  clear  that  the  pro- 
hibition of  alcohol  springs  from  no  high  motive,  but  is  purely 
dictated  by  self-interest. 

11.  —  That  the  depopulation  is  due  to  sleeping  sickness. 

Sleeping  sickness  is  one  of  the  contributory  causes,  but  all  the 
evidence  in  this  book  will  tend  to  show  that  the  great  wastage 
of  the  people  has  occurred  where  the  Congo  rule  has  pressed 
heavily  upon  them. 

So  I  bring  my  task  to  an  end. 

I  look  at  my  statement  of  the  facts  and  I  wince  at  its  many  faults 
of  omission.  How  many  specific  examples  have  I  left  out,  how  many 
deductions  have  I  missed,  how  many  fresh  sides  to  the  matter  have 
I  neglected.  It  is  hurried  and  broken,  as  a  man's  speech  may  be 
hurried  and  broken  when  he  is  driven  to  it  by  a  sense  of  burning 
injustice  and  intolerable  wrong.  But  it  is  true  —  and  I  defy  any  man 
to  read  it  without  rising  with  the  conviction  of  its  truth.  Consider  the 
cloud  of  witnesses.  Consider  the  minute  and  specific  detail  in  the 
evidence.  Consider  the  undenied  system  which  must  prima  facie 
produces  such  results.  Consider  the  admissions  of  the  Belgian 
Commission.  Not  one  shadow  of  doubt  can  remain  in  the  most 
sceptical  mind  that  the  accusations  of  the  Reformers  have  been  abso- 
lutely proved.  It  is  not  a  thing  of  the  past.  It  is  going  on  at  this 
hour.  The  Belgian  annexation  has  made  no  difference.  The 
machinery  and  the  men  who  work  it  are  the  same.  There  are  fewer 
outrages  it  is  true.  The  spirit  of  the  unhappy  people  is  so  broken 
that  it  is  a  waste  of  labour  to  destroy  them  further.  That  their  con- 
ditions have  not  improved  is  shown  by  the  unanswerable  fact  that 
the  export  of  rubber  has  not  decreased.    That  export  is  the  exact 


122  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

measure  of  the  terrorism  employed.  Many  of  the  old  districts  are 
worked  out,  but  the  new  ones,  must  be  exploited  with  greater  energy 
to  atone.  The  problem,  I  say,  remains  as  ever.  But  surely  the 
answer  is  at  hand.  Surely  there  is  some  limit  to  the  silent  comphcity 
of  the  civilized  world  ? 


XIV 

SOLUTIONS 

BUT  what  can  be  done?  What  course  should  we  pursue? 
Let  us  consider  a  few  possible  solutions  and  the  reasons 
which  bear  upon  them. 

There  is  one  cardinal  fact  which  dominates  everything.  It  is  that 
any  change  must  be  for  the  better.  Under  their  old  savage  regime 
as  Stanley  found  them  the  tribes  were  infinitely  happier,  richer  and 
more  advanced  than  they  are  to-day.  If  they  should  return  undis- 
turbed to  such  an  existence,  the  situation  would,  at  least,  be  free  from 
all  that  lowering  of  the  ideals  of  the  white  race  which  is  implied  by  a 
Belgian  occupation.  We  may  start  with  a  good  heart,  therefore,  since 
whatever  happens  must  be  for  the  better. 

Can  a  solution  be  found  through  Belgium? 

No,  it  is  impossible,  and  that  should  be  recognized  from  the  outset. 
The  Belgians  have  been  given  their  chance.  They  have  had  nearly 
twenty-five  years  of  undisturbed  possession,  and  they  have  made  it  a 
hell  upon  earth.  They  cannot  disassociate  themselves  from  this 
work  or  pretend  that  it  was  done  by  a  separate  State.  It  was  done  by 
a^^elgian  King,  Belgian  soldiers,  Belgian  financiers,  Belgian  lawyers, 
Belgian  capital,  and  was  endorsed  and  defended  by  Belgian  govern- 
ments. It  is  out  of  the  question  that  Belgium  should  remain  on  the 
Congo. 

Nor,  in  face  of  reform,  would  Belgium  wish  to  be  there.  She  could 
not  carry  the  burden.  When  the  country  is  restored  to  its  inhabitants 
together  with  their  freedom,  it  will  be  in  the  same  position  as  those 
German  and  English  colonies  which  entail  heavy  annual  expenditure 
from  the  mother  country.  It  is  a  proof  of  the  honesty  of  German 
colonial  policy,  and  the  fitness  of  Germany  to  be  a  great  land-owning 
Power,  that  nearly  all  her  tropical  colonies,  like  our  own,  show,  or 
have  shown,  a  deficit.  It  is  easy  to  show  a  profit  if  a  land  be  exploited 
as  Spain  exploited  Central  America,  or  Belgium  the  Congo.  It 
would  always  be  more  profitable  to  sack  a  business  than  to  run  it. 

123 


124  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

Now,  if  the  forced  revenue  of  the  Congo  State  disappeared,  it  would, 
at  a  moderate  estimate,  take  a  minimum  of  a  million  a  year  for  twenty 
years  to  bring  the  demoralized  State  back  to  the  normal  condition  of  a 
tropical  colony.  Would  Belgium  pay  this  ;;^2o,ooo,ooo  ?  It  is  certain 
that  she  would  not.  Reform,  then,  is  an  absolute  impossibility  so 
long  as  Belgium  holds  the  Congo. 

What,  then,  should  be  done  ? 

That  is  for  the  statesmen  of  Europe  and  America  to  determine. 
America  hastened  before  all  the  rest  of  the  world  in  1884  to  recognize 
this  new  State,  and  her  recognition  caused  the  rest  of  the  world  to 
follow  suit.  But  since  then  she  has  done  nothing  to  control  what  she 
created.  American  citizens  have  suffered  as  much  as  British,  and 
American  commerce  has  met  with  the  same  impediments,  in  spite  of 
the  shrewd  attempt  of  King  Leopold  to  bribe  American  complicity  by 
allowing  some  of  her  citizens  to  form  a  Concessionnaire  Company 
and  so  to  share  in  the  unholy  spoils.  But  America  has  a  high  moral 
sense,  and  when  the  true  facts  are  known  to  her,  and  when  she  learns 
to  distinguish  the  outcome  of  King  Leopold's  dollars  from  the  work 
of  honest  publicists,  she  will  surely  be  ready  to  move  in  the  matter. 
It  was  in  crushing  pirates  that  America  made  her  first  international 
appearance  upon  the  world's  stage.     May  it  be  a  precedent. 

But  to  bring  the  matter  to  a  head  the  British  Government  should 
surely  act  with  no  further  delay.  The  obvious  course  would  appear 
to  be  that  having  prepared  the  ground  by  sounding  each  of  the  Great 
Powers,  they  should  then  lay  before  each  of  them  the  whole  evidence, 
and  ask  that  a  European  Congress  should  meet  to  discuss  the  situation. 
Such  a  Congress  would  surely  result  in  the  partition  of  the  Congo 
lands  —  a  partition  in  which  Great  Britain,  whose  responsibilities 
of  empire  are  already  too  vast,  might  well  play  the  most  self-denying 
part.  If  France,  having  given  a  pledge  to  rule  her  Congo  lands  in  the 
same  excellent  fashion  as  she  does  the  rest  of  her  African  Empire, 
were  to  extend  her  borders  to  the  northern  bank  of  the  river  along  its 
whole  course  until  it  turns  to  the  south,  then  an  orderly  government 
might  be  hoped  for  in  those  regions.  Germany,  too,  might  well 
extend  her  East  African  Protectorate,  so  as  to  bring  it  up  to  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  Congo,  where  it  runs  to  the  south.  With  these  large 
sections  removed  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  arrange  some  great 
native  reservation  in  the  centre,  which  should  be  under  some  inter- 
national guarantee  which  would  be  less  of  a  fiasco  than  the  last  one. 
The  Lower  Congo  and  the  Boma  railway  would,  no  doubt,  present 


SOLUTIONS  125 

difficulties,  but  surely  they  are  not  above  solution.  And  always 
one  may  repeat  that  any  change  is  a  change  for  good. 

Such  a  partition  would  form  one  solution.  Another,  less  permanent 
and  stable  —  and  to  that  extent,  as  it  seems  to  me,  less  good  —  is 
that  which  is  advanced  by  Mr.  Morel  and  others.  It  is  an  inter- 
national control  of  the  river,  some  provision  for  which  is,  as  I  under- 
stand, already  in  existence.  The  trouble  is  that  what  belongs  to  all 
nations  belongs  to  no  nation,  and  that  when  the  native  risings  and 
general  turmoil  come,  which  will  surely  succeed  the  withdrawal  of 
Belgian  pressure,  something  stronger  and  richer  than  an  International 
Riverine  Board  will  be  needed  to  meet  them.  I  am  convinced  that 
partition  affords  the  only  chance  of  solid,  lasting  amendment. 

Let  us  suppose,  however,  that  the  Powers  refuse  to  convene  a 
meeting,  and  that  we  are  deserted  even  by  America.  Then  it  is  our 
duty,  as  it  has  often  been  in  the  world's  history,  to  grapple  single- 
handed  with  that  which  should  be  a  common  task.  We  have  often 
done  so  before,  and  if  we  are  worthy  of  our  fathers,  we  will  do  it  again. 
A  warning  and  a  date  must  be  fixed,  and  then  we  must  decide  our 
course  of  action. 

And  what  shall  that  action  be?  War  with  Belgium?  On  them 
must  rest  the  responsibility  for  that.  Our  measures  must  be 
directed  against  the  Congo  State,  which  has  not  yet  been  recognized 
by  us  as  being  a  possession  of  Belgium.  If  Belgium  take  up  the 
quarrel  then  so  be  it.  There  are  many  ways  in  which  we  can  bring  the 
Congo  State  to  her  knees.  A  blockade  of  the  Congo  is  one,  but  it  has 
the  objection  of  the  international  complications  which  might  ensue. 
An  easier  way  would  be  to  proclaim  this  guilty  land  as  an  outlaw 
State.  Such  a  proclamation  means  that  to  no  British  subject  does  the 
law  of  that  land  apply.  If  British  traders  enter  it,  they  shall  be 
stopped  at  the  peril  of  those  who  stop  them.  If  British  subjects  are 
indicted,  they  shall  be  tried  in  our  own  Consular  Courts.  If  com- 
plications ensue,  as  is  likely,  then  Boma  shall  be  occupied.  This 
would  surely  lead  to  that  European  Conference  which  we  are  sup- 
posing to  have  been  denied  us. 

Yet  another  solution.  Let  a  large  trading  caravan  start  into  the 
Congoland  from  Northern  Rhodesia.  We  claim  that  we  have  a 
right  to  free  trade  by  the  Berlin  Treaty.  We  will  enforce  our  claim. 
To  do  so  would  cut  at  the  very  roots  of  the  Congo  system.  If  the 
caravan  be  opposed,  then  again  Boma  and  a  conference. 

Many  solutions  could  be  devised,  but  there  is  one  which  will  come 


126  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

of  itself,  and  may  bring  about  a  very  sudden  end  of  the  Congo  Power. 
Northern  Rhodesia  is  slowly  filling  up.  The  railhead  is  advancing. 
The  nomad  South  African  population,  half  Boers,  half  English, 
adventurers  and  lion  hunters,  are  trekking  toward  the  Katanga  bor- 
der. They  are  not  men  who  will  take  less  than  those  rights  of  free 
entry  and  free  commerce  which  are,  in  fact,  guaranteed  them.  Only 
last  year  twelve  Boer  wagons  appeared  upon  the  Katanga  border  and 
were,  contrary  to  all  international  law,  warned  off.  They  are  the 
pioneers  of  many  more.  No  one  has  the  right,  and  no  one,  save 
their  own  Government,  has  the  force  to  keep  them  out.  Let  the 
Powers  of  Europe  hasten  to  regulate  the  situation,  or  some  day  they 
may  find  themselves  in  the  presence  of  3.  fait  accompli.  Better  an 
orderly  partition  conducted  from  Paris  or  Berlin,  than  the  intrusion 
of  some  Piet  Joubert,  with  his  swarthy  followers,  who  will  see  no 
favour  in  taking  that  which  they  believe  to  be  their  right. 

But  whichever  solution  is  adopted,  the  conscience  of  Europe  should 
not  be  content  merely  with  the  safeguarding  of  the  future.  Surely 
there  should  be  some  punishment  for  those  who  by  their  injustice  and 
violence  have  dragged  Christianity  and  civilization  in  the  dirt.  Surely, 
also,  there  should  be  compulsory  compensation  out  of  the  swollen 
moneybags  of  the  three  hundred  per  cent,  concessionnaires  for  the 
widows  and  the  orphans,  the  maimed  and  the  incapacitated.  Justice 
cannot  be  satisfied  with  less.  An  International  Commission,  with 
punitive  powers,  may  be  exceptional,  but  the  whole  circumstances  are 
exceptional,  and  Europe  must  rise  to  them.  The  fear  is,  however, 
that  it  is  the  wretched  agents  on  the  spot,  the  poor  driven  bonus- 
hunters  who  will  be  offered  up  as  victims,  whereas  the  real  criminals 
will  escape.  The  curse  of  blood  and  the  scorn  of  every  honest  man 
rest  upon  them  already.  Would  that  they  were  within  the  reach  of 
human  justice  also!  They  have  been  guilty  of  the  sack  of  a  country, 
the  spoliation  of  a  nation,  the  greatest  crime  in  all  history,  the  greater 
for  having  been  carried  out  under  an  odious  pretence  of  philanthropy. 
Surely  somehow,  somewhere,  they  will  have  their  reward ! 


APPENDIX 

NOTE  I  —  THE  CHICOTTE 

Chicotting  is  alluded  to  in  Congo  annals  as  a  minor  punishment,  freely 
inflicted  upon  women  and  children.  It  is  really  a  terrible  torture,  which 
leaves  the  victim  flayed  and  fainting.  There  is  a  science  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  it.  Fdlicien  Challaye  tells  of  a  Belgian  ofiicer  who  became 
communicative  upon  the  subject.  "One  can  hardly  believe,"  said  the 
brute,  "  how  difficult  it  is  to  administer  the  chicotte  properly.  One  should 
spread  out  the  blows  so  that  each  shall  give  a  fresh  pang.  Then  we  have 
a  law  which  forbids  us  to  give  more  than  twenty-five  blows  in  one  day, 
and  to  stop  when  the  blood  flows.  One  should,  therefore,  give  twenty- 
four  of  the  blows  vigorously,  but  without  risking  to  stop;  then  at  the 
twenty-fifth,  with  a  dexterous  twist,  one  should  make  the  blood  spurt," 
("Le  Congo  Frangais,"  Challaye.)  The  twenty-five  lash  law,  like  all 
other  laws,  has  no  relation  at  all  to  the  proceedings  in  the  Upper  Congo. 

Monsieur  Stanislas  Lefranc,  Judge  on  the  Congo,  and  one  of  the  few 
men  whose  humanity  seems  to  have  survived  such  an  experience,  says: 

"Every  day,  at  six  in  the  morning  and  two  in  the  afternoon,  at  each 
State  post  can  be  seen,  to-day,  as  five  or  even  ten  years  ago,  the  savoury 
sight  which  I  am  going  to  try  to  depict,  and  to  which  new  recruits  are 
specially  invited. 

"The  chief  of  the  post  points  out  the  victims;  they  leave  the  ranks  and 
come  forward,  for  at  the  least  attempt  at  flight  they  would  be  brutally 
seized  by  the  soldiers,  struck  in  the  face  by  the  representative  of  the  Free 
State  and  the  punishment  would  be  doubled.  Trembling  and  terrified, 
they  stretch  themselves  face  down  before  the  captain  and  his  colleagues; 
two  of  their  companions,  sometimes  four,  seize  them  by  their  hands  and 
feet  and  take  off  their  waistcloth.  Then,  armed  with  a  lash  of  hippopot- 
amus hide,  similar  to  what  we  call  a  cow-hide,  but  more  flexible,  a  black 
soldier,  who  is  only  required  to  be  energetic  and  pitiless,  flogs  the  victims. 

"Every  time  the  executioner  draws  away  the  chicotte  a  reddish  streak 
appears  upon  the  skin  of  the  wretched  victims  who,  although  strongly  built, 
gasp  in  terrible  contortions. 

"Often  the  blood  trickles,  more  rarely  fainting  ensues.  Regularly  and 
without  cessation  the  chicotte  winds  round  the  flesh  of  these  martyrs  of 
the  most  relentless  and  loathsome  tyrants  who  have  ever  disgraced 

127 


128  THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CONGO 

humanity.  At  the  first  blows  the  unhappy  victims  utter  terrible  shrieks 
which  soon  die  down  to  low  groans.  In  addition,  when  the  ofl&cer  who 
orders  the  punishment  is  in  a  bad  humour,  he  kicks  those  who  cry  or  struggle. 
Some  (I  have  witnessed  the  thing),  by  a  refinement  of  brutality,  require  that, 
at  the  moment  when  they  get  up  gasping,  the  slaves  should  graciously  give 
the  military  salute.  This  formaUty,  not  required  by  the  regulations,  is 
really  a  part  of  the  design  of  the  vile  institution  which  aims  at  debasing  the 
black  in  order  to  be  able  to  use  him  and  abuse  him  without  fear."  —  "Le 
Regime  Congolais,"  Li^ge,  Lefranc. 


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